INTRODUCTION. 15 



spoken of in the sacred Scriptures, but it is the opinion of 

 the best commentators that, during the first period of the 

 Jewish history, the word so translated means the caseous 

 and not the oleaginous product of milk. In one passage, 

 where the mechanism described is too plain to be mistaken, 

 the proper translation is given, and that in the most ancient 

 book in the world : — ' Hast thou not poured me out like 

 milk, and curdled me like cheese .?'* There is much reason 

 to believe that this w^as the product of the sheep, for such 

 was the cheese spoken of by other writers of a remote age ; 

 and the ' butter of kine,' mentioned in a later period of 

 Jewish record, would seem to be a delicacy of rare occur- 

 rence, promised as the ' reward of obedience." 



Homer flourished about 900 years before the Christian era, 

 and in his Odyssey alludes to the subject under consideration : 



" He next betakes him to his evening cares, 

 And, sitting down, to milk liis ewes prepares : 

 Of half their udders eases first the dams, 

 Then to the mother's teats submits the Iambs. 

 Half the white stream to hardening cheese he pressed, 

 And high in wicker baskets heaped : the rest, 

 Resented in bowls, supplied the mighty feast." t 



Mr. Burckhardt gives the following account of the manu- 

 facture of butter from ewes' and goats' milk by the Syrian 

 Arabs : — " The sheep and goats are milked during the three 

 spring months, morning and evening. They are sent out to 

 pasture before sunrise, while the lambs or kids remain in or 

 near the camp. About ten o'clock the herd returns, and the 

 lambs are allowed to satiate themselves, after which the 

 ewes belonging to each tent are tied to a long cord, and 

 milked one after another. When a ewe is feeble in health 

 her milk is left wholly for the lamb. The same process oc- 

 curs at sunset. From a hundred ewes or goats (the milk 

 of Avhich is always mixed together) the Arabs expect, in 

 common years, about eight lbs. of butter per day, or about 

 seven cwt. in the three spring months." 



In the primitive ages, after the flocks became too numer- 

 ous to be supported permanently in one locality, it was the 

 custom to remove them to a contiguous one, which originated 

 the race of men called wandering shepherds. Jabal was 

 "the father of such as dwell in tents and have cattle." He 



* Job X. 10. t Pope's translation. 



