Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/295

 other splendid cities. They appear, however, to have enjoyed far greater comforts and advantages than the corresponding class of hired laborers in the countries to the north of the Peloponnesus and of Attica. In composing pastoral verses and in playing on the pipe and the syrinx they probably equalled the Arcadians. Whilst they were watching their flocks and herds, it was a frequent amusement with them for two persons to contend for a stipulated prize, such as a goat, a carved wooden bowl, or a syrinx, which was to be awarded by an appointed judge to him who most excelled either in instrumental music, or in singing alternate and extemporaneous verses.

That this elegant recreation was of Sicilian origin we have clear and abundant evidence. Bion (Idyll vii. 1.) calls pastoral poetry "a Sicilian strain;" which certainly implies, that of all places where the Greek language was used Sicily was the most noted for it, and that in fact it properly belonged to Sicily. So Moschus (Idyll iii.) speaks of "the Sicilian muses;" and throughout this Idyll, which is the lament of Moschus on the death of Bion, he repeatedly speaks of the pastoral poetry, such as Bion cultivated, as proper to Sicily. In Virgil's Bucolics we find frequent allusions to the same acknowledged fact. Thus he says,