Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/342

 have two shirts, we ought not to have a second except for the purpose here mentioned. From this it is clear, that the Cilicium was not commonly worn by the monks, but only at particular times for the sake of humiliation.

Dr. Sibthorp (in Memoirs, edited by Walpole,) informs us, that in the present day the shepherds of Attica "shear the goats at the same time with the sheep, about April or May," and that the hair is made into sacks, bags, and carpets, of which a considerable quantity is exported. In modern as in ancient times, the inhabitants of Greece subsist in a great measure upon goats'-milk and the cheese made from it.

The wives of the Arabian shepherds still weave goats'-hair for their tents. This hair-cloth is nearly black, and resembles that of which our modern coal-sacks are made. The Arabs also hang bags of the same cloth, containing barley, about the heads of their horses to supply them with food.

The goat, as is the case with some other quadrupeds, if confined to a country, which is hot in summer and very cold in winter, is always protected in the latter season by an additional covering of fine wool beneath its long hair. A specimen of the Syrian goat in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow shows both the hair and the wool. In Kerman and Cashmere this very fine wool is obtained by combing the goats in the spring, when it becomes loose; and, having been spun into yarn, it is used to make the beautiful shawls brought from those countries.

We will now conclude this chapter with the following interesting communication from Mr. E. Riley, being the substance of a paper lately read before the Society of Arts, London.

Mr. Riley "in 1825 and 1828 transported to that territory two flocks of the finest sheep procurable throughout Germany,