BOOK VII. III. 4-7 



conscious that its head is armed, as it were, with a 

 natural weapon, it often rushes into the fray and also 

 becomes too wanton towards the females. For 

 (although it does not itself suffice to mate with the 

 whole flock) it pursues its rival in the most violent 

 manner and does not allow the flock to be covered at 

 the proper time by any other ram, except when it is 

 worn out by lust. On the other hand the hornless 5 

 ram, since it realizes that it is, as it were, disarmed, 

 is not prompt to quarrel and is milder in its amours. 

 Shepherds, therefore, use the following ruse to check 

 the brutality of a butting he-goat or ram : they fix 

 spikes in a strong board a foot in length and tie it to 

 the horns with the spikes facing the forehead. This 

 prevents the animal, fierce though he may be, from 

 quarrelling, because by his blow he pricks and 

 wounds himself. Epicharmus,* the Syracusan, who 

 has written a very careful treatise on remedies for 6 

 cattle, declares that a pugnacious ram can be tamed 

 by piercing its horns with a gimlet near the ears at 

 the point where the horns bend into a curve. The 

 best time for breeding from this animal is when it is 

 three years old ; but it continues to be suitable up to 

 eight years of age. The female ought to be mated 

 after its second year and is still regarded as young at 

 five years ; after its seventh year it becomes ex- 

 hausted. You will, therefore, as I have said, buy 7 

 ewes before they have been sheared and you will 

 reject those which are parti-coloured or bald, because 

 its colour can not be determined. You will refuse 

 a sterile ewe which has passed its third year and has 

 projecting teeth : you will select a two-year-old 

 with a large frame, a neck covered with shaggy hair 

 which is abundant but not coarse, and a woolly and 



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