or Zoological Recollections, 397 



who may be suspected to corrupt his companions, we say that 

 one scabby sheep infects the whole flock. 



By the Israelitish women the wool was spun into garments, 

 and formed a part of their offering to the sanctuary. In 

 good and olden times, the maidens of the family spun the 

 wool of their flocks; whence unmarried women are deno- 

 minated spinsters ; and, in heraldry, bear their arms, not in 

 a warlike shield, like men, but in a lozenge having a resem- 

 blance to the outline of a spindle or distaff charged with 

 worsted. 



The celebrated morocco leather is made of the skins of 

 rams dyed red. It is probably the most ancient of manufac- 

 tures, and has formed an uninterrupted article of commerce 

 for nearly four thousand years. With this was formed a 

 covering for the tabernacle in the wilderness, in the days of 

 Moses (Exodus, xxv. 5.; xxvi. 14.); and with this was deco- 

 rated the celebrated shrine of Minerva, at the Lake Tritonis : 

 and with this are covered, at the present day, our most costly 

 tables and books. The wool of the sheep is considered of 

 such inestimable importance to the comforts and commerce of 

 our own country, that the Lord Chancellor of the realm sits 

 on a woolsack in the House of Lords, as the staple commodity 

 of the kingdom ; and the funeral garments of deceased bodies 

 are by law directed to be made exclusively of woollen. 



The value of wool, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, may be 

 ascertained by the clown in Shakspeare's As you like it, who, 

 in estimating his market produce, says, " Every eleven wether 

 tods, every tod yields pound and odd shilling, fifteen hundred 

 shorn, what comes the wool to?" 



The occupation of collecting scattered flocks of wool from 

 hedges and brakes was considered so mean and miserable, 

 that it is said of a person not quite settled in his ideas, that 

 his wits are gone wool-gathering. Its valuable uses in various 

 garments, in flannels, in blankets, in broadcloth, and all 

 materials requiring warmth, are sufficiently well known : the 

 coarser lumps, called flocks, are used to stuff mattresses. The 

 skins of the slaeep make parchment and covering for books ; 

 and the skins of lambs a finer kind of gloves. 



THE HOG. 



The emblem of filth, sloth, obstinacy, gluttony, and bru- 

 tality : abhorred by the natives of warm climates as unclean, 

 and subject to scrofula and leprous disorders of the skin. 

 Hogs are highly sensible of the approach of foul weather, 

 and run about in great agitation before storms, screaming, 

 grunting, and snuffing up the air ; whence they are said to 



