II] OF SHEPHERDS 229 



are as good workers as men — a fact which you may 

 observe everywhere in Illyricum where they can 

 either shepherd the flock, or carry logs to the fire 

 and cook the food, or look after the farm imple- 



8 ments in the huts. As to the suckling of the 

 young, I may mention that the mothers in nearly 

 all cases suckle their own. And here, looking at 

 me, he said : I have heard you say that when you 

 went to Liburnia (Croatia) you saw there Liburnian 

 house-wives carrying logs, and at the same time 

 children, whom they were suckling; thus proving 

 how feeble and contemptible are our modern newly- 

 delivered mothers, who lie for days inside mosquito ^ 



9 nets. True it is, I replied, and here is an even more 

 striking illustration. In Illyricum ^ it often happens 

 that a pregnant woman when the time of delivery 

 has come, retires a little distance from the scene of 

 her work, is there delivered, and comes back with 

 a child whom you would think she had found, not 



' Conopiis. The use of mosquito nets (irtovtoTrcia — (rtivwi//, a gnat) 

 is very ancient. Herodotus, ii, 94, describes how the Egyptian 

 fisherman used his net (dfKpiiiXrjiTTpov) in the day for fishing, and 

 at night arranged it round him in the form of a tent — and the 

 mosquitoes didn't even try to get in ! — Sid Si tov Siktvov SvSk 

 yrnpufyrai dpxhv. When Judith was introduced to Holofernes in 

 his tent, he was " lying on his bed inside the mosquito curtain 

 which was of purple and gold, with emeralds and other precious 

 stones inwoven " (Judith, x, 21) : Iv rt^ icwvwTrtjy, o ?/v U iroptpvpai: 

 Kat xpvoiov Kai afiapdycov xai XiOtJV iroXvTiXwv KuOv(paafitv(uv. 



' Illyrico. The same story is told of Ligurian women by the 

 author of the book irtpi Oavfiaaitov dKovfffiaTojv, cap. .93. "The 

 women bear children in the midst of work, and as soon as they 

 have washed the baby dig and hoe," etc. 



