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the rest of the time to all the vicissitudes of the weather, 

 and at night have to lie in miserable huts formed of stakes, 

 brambles or branches of trees, and often sleep, as they term 

 it, de abaxo las estrellas under the stars. 



11 Mode of giving Salt to the Sheep. The first thing the shep- 

 herd does when his flock returns from the south to their 

 summer downs, or pastures, is to give them as much salt as 

 they will eat. Every owner allows to each tribe of a thou- 

 sand sheep twenty- five quintals of salt, (2,500 pounds,) 

 which they consume in about five months. They eat none 

 in their journeys, nor are they allowed any in winter, for it 

 is a prevailing opinion that it produces abortion when given 

 to ewes forward with young. This has ever been the cus- 

 tom, and is thought to be the true reason why the kings of 

 Spain could never raise the price of salt to the height it has 

 maintained in most parts of France; for it would tempt the 

 shepherds to stint the sheep, which, it is believed, would 

 weaken their constitutions and deteriorate their wool. The 

 shepherd places fifty or sixty flat stones at the distance of 

 about five paces apart, strews salt upon each, leads the sheep 

 slowly among them, and every one is allowed to eat of it at 

 pleasure. But when they are feeding on limestone land, 

 whether it be on the grass of the downs, or on the little 

 plants of the corn-fields after harvest-home, they eat no salt; 

 and if they meet a spot of a mixed formation, they are said 

 to partake of it in proportion as the soil is mingled with 

 clay. The shepherd being aware that his sheep will suffer if 

 deprived of salt, leads them to a clayey soil, and, in a quar- 

 ter of an hour's feeding, they march to the stones and devour 

 whatever they need. 



" Caution in allowing the Sheep to imbibe Frost or Snow. 

 One of the shepherd's chief cares is not to suffer his sheep 

 to imbibe, in the morning, the frozen dew or melted frost, 

 and never to approach a pond or stream after a shower of 

 hail. For, if they should eat the dewy grass, or drink the 

 melted hail, the whole tribe, it is believed, would become 



