As bearing directly upon the present inquiry it may be observed, that sheep have always been bred principally for the weaver, not for the butcher, and that this has been more especially the case in ancient times and in eastern countries.
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.