SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 221 



Equally unphilosophical, and not less mischievous in its effects on the 

 progress of medical science, are those religious views, widely prevalent 

 even at the present day, which in every epizootic as well as epidemic 

 scourge, recognize only a direct Theocratic infliction, operating without 

 ihe intervention of physical causes. If these doctrines do not, as when 

 carried to their full extent among the Mussulmans who yield a passive 

 non-resistance to plague and conflagration as the direct expression of God's 

 will lead to an entire abandonment of remedial measures, they at least 

 deter scrutiny into the inducing natural causes, and thus occasion a neglect 

 * of all preventive, and a much less perfect understanding of appropriate 

 remedial action. 



Between countries widely separated where their climates and other 

 circumstances exhibit considerable differences it would naturally be ex- 

 pected that still greater discrepancies would appear in their local nosology. 

 England and the United States are subject to several corresponding ovine 

 diseases, yet it is notorious that some of the most destructive ones of the 

 former are unknown, or next to unknown, in the latter. The rot, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Youatt, destroys a million of sheep annually in the British Isl- 



bunals of England and Scotland the former presided over by such men as Sir Matthew Hale 1 One ap- 

 proved method of detecting witches was to wrap the suspected persons in a sheet, the great toes and thumbs 

 being tied together, and then dragging them through a pond or river. If they sank they were guiltless if 

 not, their fate is thus alluded to by Hudibras in his description of the monster Hopkins, the " Witch-finder 

 General" of England: 



" And has he not within a year 



Hanged threescore of them in one shire ? 



Some only for not being drowned .' " 



That miserable driveler and pedant, James VI. of Scotland, defended this "trial by water," inasmuch aa 

 witches having renounced their baptism, so it is just that the element through which the holy rite is enforced, 

 should reject them i This pusillanimous monarch, who shook at the sight of a drawn sicord, was the keenest 

 instigator in his kingdom of tortures and prosecutions for suspected witchcraft, and he continued so after 

 his accession to the English throne. He was often present at the examination of accused persons, and the 

 Scotch juries did not dare to acquit their victims, fearing the severest punishment on themselves for " will 

 ful error upon an assize," a proceeding which left them at the mercy of the Crown, and which was in some 

 instances actually resorted to ! 



The elves or fairies, the dwarfs, etc., have sorely afflicted the shepherd, as well as all other husbandmen, 

 in bygone days. Their caprices were innumerable. Even in this, as Mr. Carlyle would say, 19lh century 

 of God's world, the ugly and monster-headed Phaam is sometimes seen on the lonely Kells of Galloway, 

 and the declivities of the eastern Grampians. He not unfrequently shows himself in the dawn of the morn- 

 ing on the mountains around Cairn Gorm and Lochavin, and if man or beast even goes near the place where 

 he has been before the sun shines upon it, straightway their heads swell enormously and they often die. 

 This is the origin of that frequent disease, the "swelled head" in sheep ! At least, so the inhabitants of 

 those regions informed the Ettrick Shepherd. (See Hogg's Shepherd's Guide.) But alas I for the gay and 

 courtly Fairies the very aristocracy of goblin-dom ! Who would not have his flocks, yea, and his herds 

 too, annually decimated to restore them to our utilitarianized world ! Oberon, Titania, Mab, Puck and Ariel 

 are gone ! They no longer 



" on the sands with printless foot 



Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him 



When he comes back" 



no longer 



" in the spiced Indian air, by night, 



* * * * * 



They dance then* ringlets to the whistling wind." 



The elves of the colder regions north of the Alps, who erst danced their " roundel rites" on the banks of 

 the Rhine and the green hillocks of Britain who with their splendid appointments, coursers whose feet 

 purned the limber air, saddles of ' rewel bone " 



"Bryht with mony a precious stone 

 And compasyd all with crapste," 



outshone the splendors of Chivalry who fought manful under shield, wounding and discomfiting even hu- 

 man antagonists, as related by Gervase of Tilbury, and by Heinrich von Ofterdingen in the Heldenbuch 

 who loved, wooed and were won much after the human fashion, and sometimes exchanged such favor* 

 with humanity, as is proved by the adventure of Thomas the Rymer under the " Elden tree " all are gone! 

 The trands of Scott and of Bulwer could not stay their departure ! Naked, rugged-featured, unpoetical 

 Utility has it all her own way now-a-days f 



In the language of Rt. Rev. Dr. Corbett, Bishop of Oxford and Norwich ia the beginning of the 17ft 

 fntury, 



" Lament, lament, old abbeys, 



The Fairies' lost command ; 

 They did but change priests' babies. 

 But some have changed your land ; 

 And all your children sprung from hence 



Are now grown Puritans, 

 Who live as changelings ever since 

 For love of your domains." 



