As there was in general a great affinity between the manners and ideas of Sicily and South Italy, we might infer that the pastoral habits of these two districts were in many respects similar. Theocritus accordingly lays the scene of some of his Idylls on the coast opposite to Sicily. The fifth Idyll describes a contest between a shepherd and a goatherd, who are supposed to have been employed as hired servants in the vicinity of Sybaris. The shepherd, observing some of his sheep to be feeding on an oak, which could not be very good for them, utters the following exclamation, showing that it was customary to give proper names to sheep, and thus confirming the fact, that in ancient times they were regarded as the objects of affection, and not of profitable speculation merely: Οὐκ ἀπὸ τᾶς δρυὸς οὗτος ὁ Κώναρος, ἅ τε Κυναίθα· Τουτεὶ βοσκησεῖσθε ποτ’ ἀντολὰς, ὡς ὁ Φάλαρος. Ho! Sharphorn, Browning, leave those hurtful weeds, And come and graze this way, where Colly feeds. _Creech’s Translation._ The passage has often been cited in illustration of the following verses from the Gospel of St. John. Our Savior, describing himself as a shepherd, here alludes to various indications of care and attachment, which distinguish the owner of a flock from the hireling, who, being engaged to tend the sheep only for a season, could not be so well known by them, nor so much interested in their security and welfare. “He calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth (from the fold) his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.”--_John_, x. 3-5. In reference to this passage of Scripture the following remarks of a late traveller are instructive: “I asked my man if it was usual in Greece to give names to sheep. He informed me that it was, and that the sheep obeyed the shepherd when he called them by their names. This morning (_March 5, 1828_), I had an opportunity of verifying the truth of this remark. Passing by a flock of sheep, I asked the shepherd the same question which I put to my servant, and he gave me the same answer. I then bade him to call one of his sheep. He did so, and it instantly left its pasturage and its companions, and ran up to the hand of the shepherd, with signs of pleasure and with a prompt obedience which I had never before observed in any other animal. It is also true of the sheep in this country, _that a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of the strangers_. The shepherd told me that many of his sheep are still WILD; that they had not yet learned their names; but that by teaching they would all learn them. The others, which knew their names, he called TAME.”--_Researches in Greece and the Levant, by the Rev. John Hartley_, p. 321.