And throwing her arms about her sister, the maiden’s mother, she kissed her; whereupon the latter, addressing her husband, said,—
“Let us grant them their desire.”
To which he agreed; and it was resolved, that the marriage should be solemnized in three days, the stranger being invited to remain and witness it, which he did.
The above picture of an obscure herdsman’s life in its naked simplicity, void of all embellishment, will probably be thought more trustworthy than the elaborate descriptions of the poets, notwithstanding that, even in these, it is easy to separate the real from the fictitious.
In the estimation of the Greeks the herdsman[[1845]] commonly ranked before the shepherd, and the latter before the goatherd,—for the dream of rank pursues mankind even amid the quiet of the fields,—and their manners are supposed to have corresponded. Pollux,[[1846]] however, reckons the goatherd next after the herdsman, and again inverts the order. Varro, on the other hand, gives precedence to the shepherd as the most ancient, the sheep, in his opinion, having been the animal earliest tamed.
In point of utility the goat, in some parts of the ancient world, rivalled the sheep, producing fine hair which was shorn like wool.[[1847]] I may remark, too, in passing, that the large-tailed sheep still common in Asia Minor, as well as at the Cape, were anciently plentiful in Syria, where, according to the great naturalist,[[1848]] their tails attained a cubit in breadth. In some parts of Arabia another more curious breed was found, with tails three cubits in length, to carry which they were supplied by the ingenuity of the shepherds with wooden carriages.[[1849]]
In most parts of Greece, as well as in the East, it was customary to bring home the sheep from pasture towards evening, and shut them up for the night in warm and roomy cotes, which were surrounded by wattled fences,[[1850]] strong and high, both to prevent them from leaping over, and to exclude the wild beasts which, in remoter ages, abounded in the mountains. They were carefully roofed over, and every other precaution was taken to render them perfectly dry, the floor being usually pitched with stones, and slightly inclined. Their bedding[[1851]] consisted of calaminth and asphodel and pennyroyal and polion (a sort of herb whose leaves appear white in the morning, of a purple colour at noon, and blue when the sun sets[[1852]]) and fleabane and southernwood and origany,[[1853]] all which repel vermin. The more completely to effect the same purpose, they were, likewise, in the habit of fumigating the cotes from time to time, by burning in them several locks of some shepherdess’s hair,[[1854]] together with gum ammoniac, hartshorn, the hoofs or hair of goats, bitumen, cassia, fleabane, or calaminth, for the smell of which serpents were thought to have a peculiar aversion.[[1855]] Their ordinary food, while in the folds, consisted of green clover and cytisus, fenugreek, oaten and barley straw, and vegetable stalks,[[1856]] which were supposed to be improved if sprinkled on the threshing-floor with brine, figs blown down by the wind, and dry leaves.
In the short and sharp days of winter,[[1857]] they were not led forth to pasture till both the dew and the hoar frost had disappeared; but in summer the shepherds were careful to be a-field with the dawn while the dew was still heavy on the grass. In Attica[[1858]] and the environs of Miletus, where was produced the finest and costliest wool in the ancient world, the sheep[[1859]] were protected from rain and dust and brambles and whatever else could damage their fleeces[[1860]] by housings of purple leather.[[1861]] The same practice prevailed also in the Megaris, where Diogenes beholding a flock of sheep[[1862]] thus clad, while the children, like those of the Egyptian peasants were suffered to run about naked, said, “It is better to be a Megarean’s ram than his son.” Ælian[[1863]] alludes to this saying for the purpose of noticing the ignorance and want of education prevalent among the Megareans. We find likewise in Plutarch[[1864]] another version of the anecdote taxing these Dorians with avarice and meanness. Augustus imitated the saying of Diogenes and applied it to Herod, hearing of whose cruelty to his family, he said, “It were better to be Herod’s hog than his son.”[[1865]] But if the Megareans lived poorly they built grandly: so that of them it was said, that they ate as if they were to die to-morrow, and built as if they were to live for ever.[[1866]]
Sheep, as most persons familiar with the country will probably have observed, are wont in hot summer days to retire during the prevalence of the sun’s greatest heat beneath the shade of spreading trees,[[1867]] at which time a green sweep of uplands dotted with antique oaks or beeches,[[1868]] each with its stem encircled by some portion of the flock reposing upon their own fleeces, presents a picture of singular beauty and tranquillity. The picturesque features of the scene were in old times enhanced by the addition of several accompaniments now nowhere to be found, consisting of statues, altars, or chapels, erected in honour of the rural gods or nymphs.[[1869]] Fountains, moreover, of limpid water[[1870]] in many places gushed forth from beneath the trees, where there were usually a number of seats for the accommodation of the shepherds and shepherdesses. In these retreats they generally passed the sultry hours of the day, playing on the pastoral flute or the syrinx, chanting their wild lays, or amusing each other by the relation of those strange legends which inhabited the woods and lonely mountains of Greece.[[1871]] There prevailed among them a superstition against disturbing by their music or otherwise that hushed stillness which most persons must have observed to characterise the summer noon. At this hour of the day the God Pan,[[1872]] in the opinion of Greek shepherds, took his rest after the toils of the chase, reclining under a tree in the solitary forest;[[1873]] and, as he was held to be of a hasty choleric disposition, they abstained at that time from piping through fear of provoking his anger. The other Gods likewise were believed to enjoy a short sleep at this time, as we find in the case of the nymph Aura, in the Dionysiacs.[[1874]]
From a passage in St. John’s gospel it would appear, that the practice prevailed among the Oriental shepherds of distinguishing the several members of their flocks by separate names: “The sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” We likewise find traces of the same custom in Sicily, Crete, and various other parts of Greece, where goats, and heifers, and sheep, enjoyed the privilege of a name, as Cynœtha, Amalthea, and others. In later times it was judged preferable, that the flock should follow their shepherds by the eye, for which reason they were accustomed to stuff their ears with wool.[[1875]] To prevent rams from butting, they used to bore a hole[[1876]] through their horns near the roots. Sheep were generally shorn[[1877]] during the month of May, and after the wool had been clipped, they were commonly anointed with wine, oil, and the juice of bitter lupins.[[1878]] In remoter ages the practice prevailed of plucking off the wool instead of shearing it; and this barbarous method, at once so painful to the sheep and so laborious to the shepherd, had not been entirely abandoned in the age of Pliny.[[1879]] It was a rule among the pastoral tribes, that the number of their flocks should be uneven.[[1880]] The shepherds of Greece bestowed the name of Sekitai,[[1881]] (from σηκος an enclosure) upon lambs taken early from the ewes, and fed by hand. They were usually kept in a cote apart from the other sheep.