SHEEP 301 



at the dogs which she encountered. She came to a 

 toll-bar, the keeper of which stopped her, supposing 

 she was a stray animal, and would shortly be claimed. 

 She frequently tried to get through the gate, but was 

 as often prevented, and she patiently turned back. At 

 last she found some means of eluding the obstacle, for 

 on the ninth day she reached her destination with her 

 lamb, where she was repurchased, and remained till 

 she died of old age in her seventeenth year.' 



Sheep have been known, when seized with an epidemic 

 disorder, to absent themselves from the rest of the flock, 

 and hide themselves ; and many touching stories are 

 told of the artifices of necessity practised to wean them 

 from their dead offspring, and make them adopt others; 

 also of the manner in which they remain and watch 

 the inanimate objects of their affection. 



A gentleman travelling in a lonely part of the High- 

 lands, received a strong proof of sagacity in a ewe, who 

 came piteously bleating to meet him. When near she 

 redoubled her cries, and looked up in his face, as if to 

 ask his assistance. He alighted from his gig, and 

 followed her. She led him to a cairn at a considerable 

 distance from the road, where he found a lamb, com- 

 pletely wedged in betwixt two large stones, and strug- 

 gling with its legs uppermost. He extricated the 

 sufferer, and placed it on the green sward ; and the 

 mother poured forth her thanks in a long and continued 

 bleat. (Capt. Brown's Popular Natural History.) 



The following history was related by one of the 

 shepherds to whom the circumstance occurred : ' We 

 were seven of us grazing the sheep of a rich Bulgarian, 

 on the steppe of Atkeshoff, and had a flock of 2000 

 sheep and 150 goats. It was the month of March, 



