CHAPTER I.

SHEEP’S WOOL.

SHEEP-BREEDING AND PASTORAL LIFE OF THE ANCIENTS--ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC.

The Shepherd Boy--Sheep-breeding in Scythia and Persia--Mesopotamia and Syria--In Idumæa and Northern Arabia--In Palestine and Egypt--In Ethiopia and Libya--In Caucasus and Coraxi--The Coraxi identified with the modern Caratshai--In Asia Minor, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Samos, &c.--In Caria and Ionia--Milesian wool--Sheep-breeding in Thrace, Magnesia, Thessaly, Eubœa, and Bœotia--In Phocis, Attica, and Megaris--In Arcadia--Worship of Pan--Pan the god of the Arcadian Shepherds--Introduction of his worship into Attica--Extension of the worship of Pan--His dances with the nymphs--Pan not the Egyptian Mendes, but identical with Faunus--The philosophical explanation of Pan rejected--Moral, social, and political state of the Arcadians--Polybius on the cultivation of music by the Arcadians--Worship of Mercury in connection with sheep-breeding and the wool trade--Present state of Arcadia--Sheep-breeding in Macedonia and Epirus--Shepherds’ dogs--Annual migration of Albanian shepherds 217