Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to themWood, J. G. (John George)
Religion
Story of the Bible Animals: A Description of the Habits and Uses of every living Creature mentioned in the Scriptures, with Explanation of Passages in the Old and New Testament in which Reference is made to them
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Animals in the Bible; Nature in the Bible
The Rabbinical writers, however, being totally ignorant of practical
entomology, do not seem to have recognised the insect until it had
reached its full larval growth. They say that the rams manage to
shake the grubs out of their nostrils by butting at one another
in mimic warfare, and that the ewes, which are hornless, and are
therefore incapable of relieving themselves by such means, ought
to be supplied with plants which will make them sneeze, so that
they may shake out the grubs by the convulsive jerkings of the head
caused by inhaling the irritating substance.
The same writers also recommend that the rams should be furnished
with strong leathern collars.
When the flock is on the march, the rams always go in the van,
and, being instinctively afraid of their ancient enemy the wolf,
they continually raise their heads and look about them. This line
of conduct irritates the wolves, who attack the foremost rams and
seize them by the throat. If, therefore, a piece of stout leather be
fastened round the ram's neck, the wolf is baffled, and runs off in
sullen despair.
Generally, the oldest ram is distinguished by a bell, and, when
the flock moves over the hilly slopes, the Sheep walk in file
after the leader, making narrow paths, which are very distinct
from a distance, but are scarcely perceptible when the foot of the
traveller is actually upon them. From this habit has arisen an
ancient proverb, "As the sheep after the sheep, so the daughter
after the mother," a saying which is another form of our own
familiar proverb, "What is bred in the bone will not come out of the
flesh."
* * * * *
We now come to the Sheep considered with reference to its uses.
First and foremost the Sheep was, and still is, one of the chief
means of subsistence, being to the pastoral inhabitants of Palestine
what the oxen are to the pastoral inhabitants of Southern Africa.
To ordinary persons the flesh of the Sheep was a seldom-tasted
luxury; great men might eat it habitually, "faring sumptuously every
day," and we find that, among the glories of Solomon's reign, the
sacred chronicler has thought it worth while to mention that part of
the daily provision for his household included one hundred Sheep. No
particular pains seem to have been taken about the cooking of the
animal, which seems generally to have been boiled. As, however, in
such a climate the flesh could not be kept for the purpose of making
it tender, as is the case in this part of the world, it was cooked
as soon as the animal was killed, the fibres not having time to
settle into the rigidity of death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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