224 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



goat-skin bottles in a vigorous way which would soon fetch 

 the blood if applied to the nasal organ of some antagonist. 



The mountains and plains of this great empire, both in 

 Europe and Asia, afford unrivaled facilities for the keeping 

 of sheep. In the summer the flocks pasture on the mountain 

 slopes, while the shepherds with fire-arms and dogs keep 

 careful watch against the attacks of wild beasts. In the 

 winter, immense flocks migrate from European Turkey into 

 the milder climate of Asia Minor. There is such an enor- 

 mous extent of vacant pasture-land that no expense is 

 incurred, except in the transportation of so many animals 

 across the Bosphorus or Dardanelles. 



The fat-tailed Caramanian sheep are the most singular 

 and surprising animals to be met with in Turkey. While yet 

 lambs, the tail begins to broaden and thicken with a fat 

 which is regarded by the natives as a great delicacy, and 

 equal to butter for cooking purposes. In a few months the 

 weight and size of the tail becomes a positive burden to the 

 animal, furnishing, in those creatures that have been care- 

 fully fed and tended, from fourteen to twenty pounds of pure 

 fat, superior to lard, and entering into competition with but- 

 ter. If, as often happens, the end of the tail drags upon the 

 ground, so as to endanger excoriation, a very simple though 

 laughable remedy is resorted to. A little carriage, rudely 

 made, with wheels about six or eight inches in diameter, is 

 placed under the end of the tail, which is thus sufficiently 

 sloped out from the body, and is so harnessed to the lord 

 (or lady) of the tail, that it is borne about without injury, 

 and may "laugh and grow fat" at its leisure. You may 

 thus often see a sheep going on foot, and its tail following 

 in a carriage. The natives will tell you that these carriage 



