To see his wearied oxen bow Their languid necks, and drag th’ _inverted_ plough; And then his num’rous slaves to view Round his domestic gods their mirth pursue. [350] See chap. xii. p. 191. CHAPTER III. SHEEP BREEDING AND PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS--ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, &c. Sheep-breeding in Germany and Gaul--In Britain--Improved by the Belgians and Saxons--Sheep-breeding in Spain--Natural dyes of Spanish wool--Golden hue and other natural dyes of the wool of Bætica--Native colors of Bætic wool--Saga and chequered plaids--Sheep always bred principally for the weaver, not for the butcher--Sheep supplied milk for food, wool for clothing--The moth. According to Tacitus[351], the ancient Germans had abundance of cattle, although we have no reason to suppose that they had acquired any of that skill in sheep-breeding, by which their successors in Silesia and Saxony are now distinguished. On the contrary, we are informed by the same author that the only woollen garment, which they commonly wore, was the _Sagum_, a term implying the coarseness of the material[352]. [351] Terra pecorum fecunda, sed plerumque improcera.--Germania, v. 2. [352] Nudi, aut sagulo leves.--Germania, vi. 3. Tegumen omnibus sagum. xvii. 1. We find almost as little in any ancient author in favor of the wool of Gallia Transalpina, the modern France. Pliny mentions a coarse kind, more like hair than wool, which was produced in the neighborhood of Pezenas in Provence[353]. Martial’s account of the Endromis Sequanica, coarse, but useful to keep off the cold and wet, bears upon the same point; The frousy foster of a female hand; Of name Laconian, from a barb’rous land; Though rude, yet welcome to December’s snow, To thee we bid the homely stranger go: * * * * * That into glowing limbs no cold may glide, That baleful Iris never drench thy pride: This fence shall bid thee scorn the winds and showers; The Tyrian lawn pretends no equal powers. _Elphinston’s Translation._ [353] See Appendix A. In the following epigram of Martial (vi. 11.), addressed to his friend Marcus, we observe a similar opposition between the fine and fashionable cloth of Tyre, and the thick coarse “sagum” produced in Gaul. Proud Tyrian thine, gross Gaulish mine array: In purple thee can e’er I love in gray? Juvenal gives exactly the same account of the woollen manufactures of Gaul. In the following passage the needy dependant of a rich man is speaking of the lacernas from that country, which were sometimes presented to him by his patron. Some coarse brown cloaks perhaps I chance to get, Of Gallic fabric, as a fence from wet. _Satir._ ix. _v._ 30.--_Owen’s Translation._