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Depressed in spirits, lose their appetites, pine away, and die, 

 as often has happened. Hail water is also so pernicious to 

 man, in that climate, that the people have learned, by expe- 

 rience, not to drink from a rivulet or stream until some time 

 after a violent storm of hail. 



" Disposal of the Males. On the last of July, six or seven 

 rams are permitted to run with every hundred ewes, and 

 when the shepherd judges they are properly served, he col- 

 lects the former into a separate tribe, to feed by themselves. 

 There is also another tribe of rams, which feed apart, and 

 never serve the ewes at all, but are merely kept for the 

 butchery, or for their wool. Although the wool and flesh 

 of wethers are finer and more delicate than those of rams, 

 the fleeces of the latter weigh more, and the animals are 

 longer lived. The longevity of the sheep also depends upon 

 the perfection of their teeth, for, when these fail, they cannot 

 bite the grass, and are condemned to the knife. The teeth 

 of the ewes, from their tender constitution and the fatigues 

 of breeding, usually begin to fail at the age of five years 

 the wethers at six and the robust rams not until they are 

 nearly eight years of age. 



"Smearing the Sheep. Towards the close of September 

 the shepherd performs the operation of smearing the sheep 

 with a heavy, irony earth, common in Spain. It is first 

 mixed with water, and then daubed on their backs, from the 

 neck to the rump. Some say it mingles with the oil of the 

 wool, and thus becomes a varnish impenetrable to the cold 

 and rain ; others, that its weight keeps the wool down, and 

 prevents it from growing long and coarse ; and a third class, 

 that it acts as an absorbent, and receives a part of the per- 

 spiration, which would otherwise foul the wool and render 

 it rough. Be this as it may, it is a custom of long standing, 

 and probably is useful both to the fleece and to the animal 

 which carries it, and answers the purpose of destroying 

 vermin. 



"Return of the Sheep to Winter Quarters. At the end of 



