l84 THE SHEEP AND ITS COUSINS 



scribed and figured by Messrs. Lortet and Gaillard 

 on page 76 of the second series of their monograph 

 of the mummified animals of ancient Egypt/ and 

 others in the British Museum (Natural History), 

 the horns are, however, frequently much more 

 developed, forming rather more than one complete 

 turn, with the axis of the spiral directed mainly 

 outwards. The bony cores on which they are 

 supported present, however, no trace of the longi- 

 tudinal keel found on those of a pre-Pharaonic 

 breed to which reference is made in the eleventh 

 chapter. The Egyptian fat-tail, for which Messrs. 

 Lortet and Gaillard adopt Fitzinger's name of 

 Ovis platura ^gyptiaca, is proved by the Egyptian 

 frescoes to have inhabited the Nile valley so early 

 as the Xllth dynasty. 



Despite their occurrences in Egypt at such an 

 early date, it may be accepted as a fact that fat- 

 tailed sheep were originally an Asiatic group, and 

 it is likewise equally evident that they entered 

 Africa by way of Mesopotamia and Syria, while it 

 seems highly probable that they were introduced 

 into Southern Europe from North Africa. If this 

 be so, it is clear that the dispersal of this breed was 

 practically identical with that of humped cattle, or 

 zebu, as is likewise their present geographical 

 distribution.^ 



> " La Faune Momifiee de I'Ancienne Egypte," Arch. Mus. Lyon, 

 vol. ix. Mem. 2, 1907, Moutons. pp. 69-76. 



* See Lydekker, The Ox and Its Kindred, London, 1912. 



