CHAPTER II 



PASTORALIST SYSTEMS, ANCIENT AND MODERN 



The germinal protoplasm of pastoralism stretches from 

 age to age and spreads from this country to that, but 

 is always and everywhere self -identical. It is an un- 

 dying chain, which began with the first domesticated 

 herd of cattle or horses, the first tamed flock of goats 

 or sheep, is still vital, indeed is more vigorous than 

 ever, and will live on till mankind returns, at the end 

 of its long parabola, to a condition resembling its primi- 

 tive state. Its manifestations in this age or that, its 

 duration in this country or that, its transformations 

 and modifications, are all secondary ; they are but 

 changes of costume, slow or rapid, on the Earth's 

 stage, of an ever-during reality, which pursues its course 

 across all obstacles. This is primary and essential ; 

 all else is but a passing show. One and the same figure, 

 under many disguises, eternally reappears. The Hebrew 

 ■ patriarch — Abraham, Father of the Faithful, or the 

 tickle Lot, in the dawn of time ; the ancient Arabian 

 sheikh — the patient Job ; Saul, the son of Kish, or 

 Psalmist David, as the sun of Palestine mounted to- 

 wards its zenith ; the magi who greeted the new-born 

 Saviour ; or the shepherd- and cattle-kings of Australia 

 — John McArthur and Ben Boyd, Patrick Leslie or Sir 

 Samuel McCaughey, James Tyson, Sidney Whitman, 

 or " Triggs of Yass " — in our own or recent days — there 

 is but one eternal shepherd or neatherd, with his flocks 

 or his herds, his patriarchal family, his moving tent 

 or his stationary abode, his simple life, his sane morals. 



