[10] 



making their wool a secondary consideration. When used 

 by the ancients it was as often worn on the skin as other- 

 wise, though there were exceptions to the rule. We all 

 have read of the Syrian soldiers with their sheepskin coats, 

 and the shoes of the more northern tribes were made of the 

 skin with the wool turned in. Penelope kept her lovers at 

 bay during the prolonged absence of her husband Ulysses 

 by unraveling at night the woolen embroidery she had 

 completed in the day, having promised her hand to one 

 when she should finish it, and the language could not ex- 

 press the admiration of the poet at the many beautiful 

 colors of her yarns. The reader is familiar with the loveli- 

 ness and grandeur of the royal Tyrian purple that was im- 

 parted to the tunics which could only be transferred to 

 woolen fabrics. 



Spain and Portugal, however, are entitled to the credit of 

 having made the first successful effort to improve the breeds 

 of sheep with reference to the wool. Those countries are 

 well and peculiarly adapted to the culture and raising of 

 sheep. For the most part they are broken and mountainous, 

 and abound with rich pasturage. The wealthy nobles of 

 those feudal countries, too, derived a large portion of their 

 income from the sales of sheep and wools. They did not 

 condescend, however, to manufacture the wool into goods, 

 but delegated that branch to Flanders, which was for many 

 centuries connected, by royal marriages, to the same govern- 

 ment. The merchants of the latter country were an indus- 

 trious and enterprising people, and the lands not being suffi- 

 cient to support its teeming population, they built many 

 woolen mills, as well as other manufactories, and absorbed 

 the wools of not only Spain, Portugal, and France, but ab- 

 solutely bought up all the wool of England, made it into 

 cloth, and then, returning it to where it was grown, sold it 

 to the owners of the flocks at an enormous profit. These 

 merchants made so much discrimination in the varieties of 

 wool, the farmers began to try to improve the character of 



