1 8 INTRODUCTION. 



These could hitherto have been very few — and were of 

 course accidentals — or the selfish and avaricious father-in- 

 law would not have consented to the proposal. It was clear- 

 ly Jacob's wish to increase the number which would fall to 

 his share, by art, and the principle upon which he acted was 

 drawn from the experience of the female of the human spe- 

 cies as exhibited in instances where the imagination of the 

 mother caused deformities, or peculiar external marks on her 

 offspring, before its birth. The ingenious device he adopted 

 is set forth in Genesis, 30th chapter, and 37 and 38 verses. 

 Jacob's scheme was crowned with success, which probably 

 induced others to follow his shrewd example ; and subse- 

 quently, by selections in breeding from male and female of 

 such as possessed the largest proportion of white in the fleece, 

 in process of time, it became wholly so. In David's time, 

 he likens it to snow ; and Solomon speaks of the teeth of his 

 mistress, as resembling a flock of sheep just come up from 

 the washing. 



Jacob's policy inculcates a lesson to breeders of all kinds 

 of domestic animals which should not be neglected. It es- 

 tablishes the supremacy of art, and the ease with which both 

 the form and coat can be moulded to the will of man. 



The Scriptures are silent relative to any peculiarities of the 

 form of the ancient sheep — saving that the ram was horned — 

 and we have no information of any attempts having been under- 

 taken for its improvement. From the fact — as will more 

 fully appear from the following pages — the fat-rumped and 

 fat-tailed sheep abounding in those countries which were oc- 

 cupied by the primitive shepherds, Mr. Yonatt arrived at the 

 conclusion, that the peculiar adipose substance collected on 

 the rumps and tails, was common to the sheep both before 

 and after the deluge, and sustains his opinion on the follow- 

 ing passage of Sacred writ : And Moses " took the fat, and the 

 rump^ and all the fat that was upon the inwards," and *' burnt 

 them on the altar upon the burnt-offering." Accordingly he 

 rejects the commonly received opinion that the Argali is 

 the original breed ; and the following observations of Mr. 

 Price, an English writer of distinction on sheep, will throw 

 a doubt over the subject, and leaves the question unsettled, 

 where, with man at least, it will probably forever remain. 



The question whether the different varieties of the same 

 species of animal have been produced by accidental devia- 

 tions from one original parent breed, or whether there may 



