1 16 SHEEP. 



scabrous externally, eight cuttings-teeth in the lower jaw, 

 but none in the upper. 



Linnaeus enumerates three distinct species ; the ram or 

 common sheep, the Guinea sheep, and the Cretan sheep, 

 besides several varieties ; such as the broad-tailed sheep, 

 the many-horned sheep, the fat-rumped tail-less sheep, 

 and the African sheep : but all may be fairly derived 

 from the common breed, for which reason we shall con- 

 fine our description to it alone. 



The sheep in its present domestic state is at once the 

 most useful, and the most defenceless of animals. Desti- 

 tute of every quality necessary for self-preservation, they 

 endeavour to fly without swiftness, and to oppose without 

 courage or strength. These feeble efforts only serve to 

 provoke the insults of their enemies ; the dog pursues the 

 flock with increased delight on seeing them fly, and attacks 

 them with less fear, not suspecting any attempts at resist- 

 ance. In short, the sheep derives its own safety from 

 man ; and must now rely on that art of protection, to 

 which it originally owed its degradation. 



In its servile state, the sheep is not only void of all 

 means of defence, but it appears the most innocent and 

 stupid of all animals. Its physiognomy indicates no traits 

 of cunning or courage, of attachment or reserve. The 

 better it is fed, the more dull and sluggish it becomes ; 

 and, in fact, all the changes that have been effected on 

 this animal, and all the pains that are taken with it, tend 

 as much or more to the benefit of man than to its own. 



In many parts of the Alps, however, and in some pro- 

 vinces of France, where the sheep are penned every night 

 to secure them from the wolf, they evince a degree of 

 docility and obedience to their keeper. When the sun 

 declines, he sounds his pipe, and they follow him, appa- 

 rently pleased with his pastoral music : thus realising in 

 some measure the high-wrought accounts of Arcadian 

 scenes, on which the mind of sensibility cannot dwell 

 without some degree of enthusiastic pleasure. 



It does not appear that the culture of sheep was much 



