FAT-TAILED AND LONG-TAILED SHEEP 175 



According to Dr. Fitzinger, the Syrian fat- 

 tailed sheep is only a local form of the Bokharan 

 breed. Of the former, Canon Tristram ^ wrote as 

 follows : — 



" There are two breeds of sheep, so far as I 

 could judge from observation, in Palestine. In the 

 northern hills there is a breed apparently not unlike 

 the merino, with short fine wool, well-shaped, short, 

 and fine legs. The common Syrian sheep is much 

 taller, large-boned, with a broad fat tail, hornless 

 head (excepting in the rams), and long Roman 

 nose, such as we see represented in Italian land- 

 scapes. The peculiarity of this breed, which by 

 some has been distinguished from the common 

 sheep {Ovis aries) under the name of Ovis lati- 

 caudata, is the enormous development of fat on the 

 tail. This is the only race we noticed in the 

 southern parts of the country, and it seems to have 

 been the breed of the ancient Israelites, the fat of 

 the tail being spoken of as ' the rump.' . . . 



" Both Herodotus and Aristotle especially men- 

 tion the broad-tailed sheep of Arabia and Syria. 

 The tail is simply a mass of fat, and is used for 

 grease, for lamps, and for cooking. The Arabs 

 fry it in slices and esteem it a delicacy, but it is 

 very like fried tallow. Though the carcase does 

 not weigh more than fifty or sixty pounds, the tail 

 will average ten pounds, and I have known it forty 



* Natural History of the Bible, p. 143, London, 1867. 



