The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and Other Fibrous Substances;: Including Observations on Spinning, Dyeing, and Weaving.Gilroy, Clinton G.
History
The History of Silk, Cotton, Linen, Wool, and Other Fibrous Substances;: Including Observations on Spinning, Dyeing, and Weaving.
Gilroy, Clinton G.
History, Ancient; Textile fabrics -- History
In the Suovetaurilia among the Romans a hog, a sheep, and a bull,
their principal domestic animals, were sacrificed. A sheep was
killed every day for the guards, who watched the tomb of Cyrus.
(_Arrian_, _vol._ i. _p._ 438, _Blancardi_.) In the Odyssey (ρ.
180-182.) a sacrifice is made and a feast prepared of sheep, goats,
hogs, and a cow. Also in Od. v. 3. 250. sheep are sacrificed and
furnish part of a feast. In order to ratify a treaty between the Greeks
and Trojans, the former sacrificed a lamb of the male sex to Jupiter;
the latter one of the male sex and white to the Sun, and another of
the female sex and black to the Earth. (Il. γ. 103, 104.) Sheep are
sacrificed to Apollo at Delphi in Euripides, Ion, _l._ 230. 380.
The rare instances of the use of sheep for food or sacrifice by the
Egyptians have been already noticed.
But, although sheep, both old and young, male and female, were
sacrificed to the objects of religious worship and on other festive
occasions were eaten, especially by the rich and great, yet their chief
use was to supply clothing, and the nourishment they yielded consisted
in their milk and the cheese made from it, rather than in their flesh.
This fact is illustrated by the words of Solomon, formerly quoted, and
in which he speaks of lambs for _clothing_ and goat’s _milk_ for food.
In like manner St. Paul says (1 Cor. ix. 7.), “Who planteth a vineyard,
and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth
not of the milk of the flock?”
Varro thinks, that sheep were employed for the use of man _before any
other animal_ on account of their usefulness and placidity, and he
represents their use to consist in supplying cheese and milk for food,
fleeces and skins for clothing[365]. In like manner Columella in his
account of the use of sheep (vii. 2.) says, they afforded the chief
materials for clothing. In treating of their use for food, he mentions
only their milk and cheese. Pliny refers to the employment of sheep
both for sacrifices and for clothing. He also remarks, that as the
ox is principally useful in obtaining food, to wit, by ploughing and
other agricultural processes, the sheep, on the other hand, supplies
materials for clothing[366].
[365] De Re Rustica, l. ii. cap. i.
[366] See Appendix A.
The fact, that wool was among the ancients by far the most common
material for making clothes, accounts for the various expressions in
scripture respecting the destructiveness of the moth.
“Your garments are moth-eaten.” James v. 2. “He, as a rotten thing,
consumeth, as a garment that is moth-eaten.”--Job xiii. 28. “They all
shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.”--Is. l. 9.
“The moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worms shall eat
them like wool.” Is. li. 8. “From garments cometh a moth.” Eccles.
xlii. 13. “Treasures, where moth and rust corrupt.” Matt. vi. 19.
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