JACOB'S FLOCKS.--The story of Jacob dealing with the flocks of Laban, given in Genesis xxx, is usually alluded to in corroboration of the belief that offspring may be physically affected before birth, by anything which strongly influences the imagination of the mother. Jacob is represented as making an agreement with Laban, his father-in-law, that Jacob should receive as his hire all the ringstreaked and spotted he-goats and all the black she-goats, and also those that were speckled and spotted. When this arrangement had been made, Laban sought to benefit by it by removing from the flock all the goats that answered to that description, and giving them into the care of his sons, leaving the rest of the flock in Jacob's charge. This was undoubtedly an attempt on the part of Laban to cheat his son-in-law out of his wages, but the latter was not to be so cheated, and he adopted a plan which gave him the pick of the flock, leaving the feeble goats to his less wily parent. In describing this operation, the Bible story says: "And Jacob took him rods of fresh poplar [or storax tree] and of the almond and of the plane tree, and peeled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had peeled over against the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink; and they conceived when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and the flocks brought forth ringstreaked, speckled and spotted. And Jacob separated the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ringstreaked and all the black in the flock of Laban; and he put his own droves apart, and put them not unto Laban's flock. And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger of the flock did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the flock in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods; but when the flock were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's." Whether or not this incident actually occurred as stated we do not know. According to the subsequent part of the narrative, the effect of setting up the peeled rods was ascribed to God's interference in his behalf; but it is not improbable that we have in the story a reference to ancient shepherd lore, based on the superstitious notions still so common in the East. In the earlier part of the same chapter is a story relating to mandrakes, which were supposed to have influence on human generation. Jacob is said to have used three kinds of rods, those of the poplar or storax tree, the almond, and the plane tree, which produced ringstreaked, speckled and spotted lambs.