Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/334

 that this abode was somewhere in the elevated land of central Asia, in the region, for example, of Armenia, we adopt an hypothesis, which explains in the most simple and satisfactory manner the apparent fact of the propagation not only of men, but of these quadrupeds with them, from that centre over immense regions of the globe.

With regard to historical evidence, it is certainly very defective. No express testimony assures us of the facts included in the above-named hypothesis. One thing, however, is certain, and it appears very deserving of attention, viz. that the sheep and the goat have always been propagated together. We find great nations, which had no acquaintance with either of these quadrupeds, but depended for their subsistence upon either oxen or horses. We find others, on the contrary, to whose mode of life the larger quadrupeds were of much less importance than the smaller; but we find none, which were accustomed to breed sheep without goats, or goats without sheep.

The reader will find numerous illustrations of this fact on reviewing the evidence contained in the preceding chapters. General terms were employed in the ancient world to include both sheep and goats. Where more specific terms are used, we still find "rams and goats," "ewes and she-goats" mentioned together. Sheep and goats were offered together in sacrifice, and the instances are too numerous to mention, in which the same flock, or the wealth of a single individual, included both these animals.

In consequence of this prevailing association of sheep and goats, they are often represented together in ancient bas-reliefs and other works of art. Of this we have a beautiful example in the Rev. Robert Walpole's collection of "Travels in various countries of the East." At the end of the volume is a plate taken from a votive tablet of Pentelic marble dedicated to Pan, and representing five goats, two sheep, and a lamb. As the goats are in one group, and the sheep and lamb in another, the artist probably designed to represent a flock of each. For,