Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/328

 The customs of the shepherd tribes in the East are in this respect remarkably like those of the ancients.

"The Arabs rarely diminish their flocks by using them for food, but live chiefly upon bread, dates, milk, butter, or what they receive in exchange for their wool. They however sell their sheep to the people in the towns. A lamb or kid roasted whole is a favorite dish at Aleppo, but seldom eaten except by the rich ." When the Arabs have a sheep-shearing, they perhaps kill a lamb, and treat their relations and friends with it together with new cheese and milk, but nothing more. Among the Mohammedans sheep are sacrificed on certain days as a festive and at the same time a religious ceremony; these ceremonies are of great antiquity and derived from Arab heathenism. On the pilgrimage to Mecca every one is required to sacrifice a sheep at a certain place near Mecca.

By the Law of Moses the sheep was a clean animal, and might consequently be eaten or sacrificed. A lamb or kid, roasted whole, was the principal and characteristic dish at the feast of the passover. The rich man kills a lamb to entertain his guest in the beautiful parable of Nathan. (2 Sam. xii. 4.) Sheep were killed on the festive occasion of shearing the very numerous flocks of Nabal. (1 Sam. xxv. 2. 11. 18.) An ox and six choice sheep were sacrificed daily for the numerous guests of Nehemiah, while he was building the wall of Jerusalem. (Neh. v. 17, 18.) Immense numbers of sheep and oxen were sacrificed at the dedication of Solomon's temple. (1 Kings, viii. 5. 63.) The prophet Ezekiel (xxxiv. 3.) describes the bad shepherd as selfishly eating the flesh and clothing himself with the wool of the sheep, without tending them with due care and labor.

In the Suovetaurilia among the Romans a hog, a sheep, and a bull, their principal domestic animals, were sacrificed. A sheep was killed every day for the guards, who watched the tomb of Cyrus. (Arrian, vol. i. p. 438, Blancardi.) In the