Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/335

 though sometimes mixed in the same flock, the two kinds of animals were generally kept apart; and to this circumstance our Savior alludes in his image of the shepherd dividing the sheep from the goats.

A sheep and a goat are seen reposing together in a Roman bas-relief in the Monumenta Matthæiana, vol. iii. tab. 37. fig. 1.

Rosselini gives two paintings from Egyptian tombs, which exhibit both sheep and goats ; and he mentions an inscription on the tomb of Ranni, according to which that person had 120 goats, 300 rams, 1500 hogs, and 122 oxen.

In the account given in chapter II. of the Sicilian Daphnis, an epigram by Callimachus on Astacides, who was a goatherd in Crete, was partially quoted, probably remarkable for his beauty and his immature death. The translation of the passage will now be given.

[Greek: Astakidên ton Krêta, ton aipolon, hêrpase Nymphê Ex oreos; kai nyn hieros Astakidês Oikei Diktaiêsin hypo drysin; ouketi Daphnin Poimenes, Astakidên d' aien aeisometha.]

A nymph has snatch'd Astacides away; Beneath Dictæan oaks our goatherd lies: Shepherds! no more your songs to Daphnis pay; For now with him the sacred Cretan vies.

Yates's Translation.

Theocritus (Idyll. vii. 12-20.) describes a goatherd of Cydon in Crete, named Lycidas; and from the account which he gives of his attire, we may judge of that commonly used in ancient Greece by the same description of persons. He wore on his shoulders the dun-colored hide of a shaggy goat, and an old shawl was fastened about his breast with a broad girdle. In his right hand he held a crook of wild olive.

The same author (Idyll. iii. 5.) mentions a fine strong