•WOOLLEN TRA.DB.] 



SHEEP, 



["WOOLLEN TRADE. 



tlian tbe junction of these, and their compres- 

 sion with one another. So far will this go, 

 that even the smallest particle of wool seems 

 to possess the above quality. 



" It is to this felting property," says Mr. 

 "Milburn, " that we have long been indebted 

 for our hats." It is mentioned in the Iliad 

 of Homer. Plato speaks of it as " cloth made 

 by the thickening of wool." Pliny, describing 

 it with the more practised eye of an observing 

 natural historian, says—" Parcels of wool, driven 

 together by themselves, make cloth." Hero- 

 dotus, when he describes the clothing of 

 Xerxes' army of Persian soldiers, says, they 

 wore " light and flexible caps of felt," which 

 he also describes as used by the Medes and 

 Bactrians. Julius Caesar, finding his soldiers 

 annoyed by the arrows of Pompey's army, de- 

 scribes them as making shirts or clothing of 

 felt, to protect them from the archers. Thucy- 

 dides mentions a similar device to protect the 

 body from the effects of arrows. The more 

 peaceful Greeks used the wool for a more 

 pastoral purpose. They clothed their sheep 

 with felted wool, according to Aristotle, in 

 order to produce an impression on the texture 

 and colour of the fleece. Tasso mentions that 

 the Attic sheep were clothed to improve and 

 preserve their fleeces ; and Demosthenes calls 

 them " soft sheep." It was the impossibility 

 of felting the hair of the goat and the camel, 

 doubtless, which first suggested the idea of 

 weaving. 



Tasso says — "As the sheep yields to man 

 wool for clothing, so the goat furnishes hair 

 for the use of sailors, and to make ropes for 

 military engines and vessels for artificers. * * * 

 The goats are shorn in a great part of Phrygia, 

 because they have long shaggy hair. Cilicia 

 (Jiair-clotlis), and other things of the same 

 kind, arc commonly imported from that 

 country." The character of this cloth is inti- 

 mated in the prophetic symbols of the signs of 

 the second advent : — " The sun shall become 

 black as sackcloth of hair." 



Dyeing seems to have been of very ancient 

 origin ; and nature appears to have suggested 

 the idea in the rearing of black, white, and 

 party-coloured sheep. But a taste for bril- 

 liant and glaring colours has prevailed in all 

 countries and in every age ; and although the 

 art of dyeing is, like many other arts, indebted 

 724 



to chance for its origin, still it can be traced 

 up to a very remote antiquity. "We have 

 already alluded to the " coat of many colours" 

 possessed by Joseph ; and as the Israelites, 

 soon after their departure from Egypt, under- 

 stood the art of dyeing scarlet and purple, 

 or crimson, it is obvious, that at least 1,500 

 years before the birth of Christ, dyeing was 

 practised among the Egyptians. The proba- 

 bility is that they derived it from some one of 

 the Indian nations with whom they traded ; 

 but, be this as it may, it appears by Pliny, 

 that the Egyptians even knew the use of what 

 are called mordants, in fixing or modifying the 

 colours which they made use of. " Tyrian 

 purple" is alluded to by Juvenal. The Greeks 

 seem to have been slow in acquiring this art, 

 as, in the expedition of Alexander into India, 

 it was so little known in his army, that the 

 soldiers were surprised at seeing ensigns of so 

 many colours used by their opponents. After 

 its introduction to Greece, it passed into 

 Italy, and thence into other European coun- 

 tries, Bffitis had fieeces possessing " metallic 

 tints," especially the prized " golden hue," 

 and also the sober native hues of " Baetic drab 

 or grey." The two colours of Spanish wool 

 were said, in 1G07, to be — one a golden yellow, 

 and the other a ferruginous or brown colour. 

 These colours probably depended on the soil 

 on which the animals fed. Ancient monu- 

 ments attest the remote period at which the 

 wool trade was cultivated. On a Eoman altar, 

 dedicated to Hope, above the emblematic ears 

 of corn and the bee-hive, is a distinct bale of 

 wool. On the altar to Silvanus, is the cadu- 

 ceus of Mercury and a bale of wool, evidently 

 tied with twisted and knotted cords, as if 

 packed up for exportation. Amongst the 

 Belgaj and the Gauls, woollen manufactures 

 seem to have been common. The latter is 

 alluded to in contrast to the proud purple, or 

 Tyrian, and designated "goss Gaulish grey." 

 In Juvenal's ninth Satire, allusion is thus made 

 to Gailician manufacture : — " Some coarse 

 brown cloak I may happen possibly to get — 

 some Gallic fabric, as a defence from the rain." 

 At the Eoman conquest of Britain, Caesar 

 describes the inhabitants as a pastoral people, 

 possessing cattle, clothed in the skins of ani- 

 mals, and subsisting on flesh and milk. This 

 description especially applies to those who 



