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cold, and moisture, common to some countries, and where 

 their unobstructed but less abundant perspiration is allowed 

 to be swept away as fast as it flows. It is a remarkable 

 fact, that all the sheep in Spain, which constantly live in the 

 open air, perpetuate their color and other properties to their 

 progeny; and it is equally remarkable that the swine of 

 that country, which run wild in the woods, are invariably 

 clothed in fine, curly, black hair; and hence the Spanish 

 proverb, ' Never did a Spanish hog's bristle pierce a 

 shoe.' 



" Classification of the sheep, and laws regulating the 

 flocks. The fine wooled flocks of Spain, in the language 

 of that country, are called ( trashumantes/ or traveling 

 sheep, in contradistinction to the ' estantes/ or those which 

 are stationary. The former, let it be recollected, migrate 

 every spring from the warm plains and valleys of the south, 

 to the cool, mountainous regions of the north, where they 

 pass the summer, and return again in autumn to pass the 

 winter below. It is obvious that migrations of so frequent 

 occurrence, and to so great an extent, would necessarily re- 

 quire some fixed regulations. Hence, a great number of 

 ordinances, penal laws, privileges, and immunities were en- 

 acted, or so set forth in different reigns, for the preservation 

 and special government of these sheep; and hence the origin 

 of the ruinous privileges of the ' mesta.' This was an as- 

 sociation of proprietors of large flocks, consisting of rich, 

 religious communities, grandees of Spain, and opulent indi- 

 viduals with hereditary rights, who fed their sheep at public 

 expense during every season of the year, which eventually 

 gave rise to a custom first established by necessity. The 

 mountains of Saria and Segovia, condemned to sterility by 

 the climate, soil, and the steepness of their sides, were for- 

 merly the asylum of some neighboring flocks. At the ap- 

 proach of winter the place was no longer tenable. The 

 sheep sought in the neighboring plains more temperate air. 

 Their masters soon changed this permission into a right, and 



