296 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



regarded their representatives as objects of veneration, of 

 hope, or of fear. In the early mythologies, Pan, the su- 

 preme power over nature, is portrayed with the insignia 

 of the Goat, and the Lybian Jupiter with the horns of the 

 Ram ; Osiris, or the Sun, during the vernal period of the 

 year, assumes the same characters ; and the Grecian Ju- 

 piter and Minerva claim alike the iEgis, or Goat skin, for 

 a breast-plate. Both the Goat and Sheep were held sacred 

 to one or more divinities, and sacrificed at their altars. In 

 the Jewish law they were likewise sacrificed, but not with 

 the same intention ; for here the Goat was expressly marked 

 as emblematical of atonement, and in the christian dis- 

 pensation, the beautiful image of exalted innocence bearing 

 the sins of mankind, is still retained in the figurative de- 

 signation of the Lamb. 



The skins of these animals were, probably, among the 

 first materials employed for clothing ; afterwards the long 

 hair of the Goat was mixed up with the short and soft fur 

 of other animals, and united with the gum of trees, or ani- 

 mal glue, manufactured into that coarse but solid felt, 

 known in Northern Asia from the earliest ages, and noticed 

 by historians and poets. It was probably of this material 

 that the black war-tunics of the Cimbri were made, in 

 their conflicts with Marius ; and we know it was the win- 

 ter dress of the auxiliary Cohorts, and even of the Roman 

 Legions in Britain, at least to the period of Constantine. 

 But long before this era, the gradual advance of art was 

 felt, even in the depth of Northern Europe ; the distaff had 

 reached the Scandinavian nations, as well as we find it sub- 

 sequently in the hands of the Mexican ; and the thread, 

 at first platted into ribbons, afterwards enlarged and 

 wrought like matting into a kind of thrum, was at length 

 woven into narrow, and last of all into broad, pieces of 

 cloth. In the ribbon plat (i. e. plaid,) we see the origin of 

 the check dresses common to most nations of northern lati- 



