HISTORY. 37 



neously termed the Persian Breed, though in no degree pro- 

 per to Persia. These Sheep thrive on the withered herbage 

 of the countries they inhabit, and where the Sheep of Europe 

 would perish. They are found in Madagascar, and along the 

 south-eastern coast of Africa, together with the broad- tailed 

 breeds. 



Of the races of the boundless countries of the interior of 

 the African Continent we know scarcely any thing. Travel- 

 lers, indeed, speak of Sheep as being numerous in the 

 countries they have traversed, but they give us no characters 

 by which the races can be discriminated. But in the rich 

 and pestilential countries of the Negroes of the western 

 coasts, the Sheep are better known to us. They are in great 

 numbers, and of characters as distinct from those of Asia 

 and Europe as other quadrupeds of the same countries. 

 They are covered with short hair without any wool, and have 

 tails like those of swine ; and some of them have singular 

 enlargements on the cheek, throat, and sometimes on the 

 forehead. They are familiar to the slave-traders, who'carry 

 them away as sea-stock, along with their human victims. 

 In the milder countries southward to the extremity of the 

 Continent, there are large flocks of Sheep reared by such of 

 the itomadic tribes as their own endless wars and the cruel 

 avarice of European colonists have spared. The Hottentot 

 Sheep are of slender forms, resembling foxes rather than 

 Sheep, and having long tails on which the fat accumulates. 

 They have been confounded with the broad-tailed Syrian 

 race, from which they are distinct. They have been long 

 available to the Indian voyagers as sea-stock ; but they are 

 of delicate constitution, and frequently perish with the first 

 gales on quitting the Cape of Storms. Few of them, how- 

 ever, now exist in the pure state in the territory of the Cape, 

 a mixed race having been formed by the Dutch and English 

 colonists. 



Turning to Europe, we find the Sheep varying in every 

 country, and, like the human inhabitants, exhibiting the most 



