90 History of Nature. [BooK VIII. 



Scipio, among the Crimes alleged against Capita, accused 

 him that the Babylonian Hangings of his Dining-room cost 

 800,000 Sesterces ; and such-like of late stood Prince Nero 

 in 400,000,000 Sesterces. 1 The Praetextse of Servim Tullius, 

 with which he covered the Image of Fortune which he had 

 dedicated, remained sound to the death of Seianus. And it 

 was a Wonder that they neither fell from the Image nor 

 were Moth-eaten in 560 Years. We have in our Day seen 

 the Sheep's Fleeces while they are alive, dyed with Purple, 

 with Scarlet in Grain, and from the Shell- fish, by the 

 means of certain Barks, a Foot and a half long, dipped 

 in those Colours ; as if Luxury should make Wool to grow 

 of those Colours. For the Sheep itself, she is known to be 

 of the best Breed if she be short-legged, and well wooled 

 under the Belly ; for such as are naked there, they called 

 Apicae, and condemned. In Syria, Sheep have Tails a Cubit 

 long, and they bear most Wool there. It is thought to be 

 too early to castrate Lambs before they are five Months old. 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

 Of the Musmon* 



THERE is in Spain, but especially in Corsica, a Kind of 

 Musmones, not altogether unlike Sheep, having a Shag 

 more like the Hair of Goats than the Fleece of Sheep. That 

 Kind which is produced between them and the Sheep they 

 called in old Time Umbri. This Creature hath a very tender 

 Head, and therefore in feeding it is to be forced to stand 

 with its Tail to the Sun. Of all living Creatures, those that 

 bear Wool are the most foolish ; for if one of them be drawn 

 by the Horn, all the rest will follow, though otherwise they 



1 Quadragies, vel quadrengenties sestertio. Wern. Club. 



3 Most naturalists look to the Mouflon, or Musmon, of Corsica (Ovis 

 musimon), as the wild type of the sheep, and some regard this to be the 

 origin of the European breeds ; but the reasons upon which this is as- 

 sumed appear very problematical. The domestic breeds of sheep are 

 most probably the descendants of a race subjected from the beginning to 

 man, and no longer in an independent state. Wern. Club. 



