If we may judge from the following epigram of Martial, the Romans regarded with feelings little short of aversion the act of killing a sheep for food except on solemn or extraordinary occasions. The Ram’s head. Hast pierc’d the neck of the Phryxean lord, Who oft had shelter’d thine? O deed abhorr’d! xii. 211.--_Elphinston’s Translation._ The customs of the shepherd tribes in the East are in this respect remarkably like those of the ancients. “The Arabs rarely diminish their flocks by using them for food, but live chiefly upon bread, dates, milk, butter, or what they receive in exchange for their wool. They however sell their sheep to the people in the towns. A lamb or kid roasted whole is a favorite dish at Aleppo, but seldom eaten except by the rich[363].” When the Arabs have a sheep-shearing, they perhaps kill a lamb, and treat their relations and friends with it together with new cheese and milk, but nothing more. Among the Mohammedans sheep are sacrificed on certain days as a festive and at the same time a religious ceremony; these ceremonies are of great antiquity and derived from Arab heathenism. On the pilgrimage to Mecca every one is required to sacrifice a sheep at a certain place near Mecca[364]. [363] Harmer s Observations, vol. i. p. 393. ed. Clarke. [364] Harmer, p. 39. Pallas (Spicilegia Zoologica, Fasc. xi. p. 79.) speaks of the beautiful lamb-skins from Bucharia, as being admired for their curled gray wool. By the Law of Moses the sheep was a _clean_ animal, and might consequently be eaten or sacrificed. A lamb or kid, roasted whole, was the principal and characteristic dish at the feast of the passover. The rich man kills a lamb to entertain his guest in the beautiful parable of Nathan. (2 _Sam._ xii. 4.) Sheep were killed on the festive occasion of shearing the very numerous flocks of Nabal. (1 _Sam._ xxv. 2. 11. 18.) An ox and six choice sheep were sacrificed daily for the numerous guests of Nehemiah, while he was building the wall of Jerusalem. (_Neh._ v. 17, 18.) Immense numbers of sheep and oxen were sacrificed at the dedication of Solomon’s temple. (1 _Kings_, viii. 5. 63.) The prophet Ezekiel (xxxiv. 3.) describes the bad shepherd as selfishly eating the flesh and clothing himself with the wool of the sheep, without tending them with due care and labor.