5 stretched themselves upon their couches, and ate the lambs out of the flock," and the calves out of the midst of the stall." It is obviously the design of the indignant prophet to inform us, that the nobles and princes of his degenerate country, indulged, without restraint, in every sensual gratifiation which luxury could suggest, and riches procure. In times of primeval simplicity, when mankind, in general, almost constantly engaged in hazardous pursuits, or toilsome occupations, required for their sustenance a very large quantity of solid and nutritious food, the fullgrown ox himself was forced to contribute a principal part of every public entertainment. When Adonijah seized the sceptre of Israel, he "slew sheep and oxen and fat cattle; and called all his brethren, the king's sons, and all the men of Israel, the king's servants:"t the son of Shaphat made a feast equally substantial, when he was invested with the prophetic office;" abundance of "oxen and sheep” were provided for the great and splendid entertaimnent at the coronation of David; and when Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went down to visit Ahab the king of Israel at Samaria, the latter killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people that were with him." was the kind of feast in which they chiefly delighted; from which they could be deterred neither by the denunciations of divine judgment, nor the terrors of immediate invasion: "And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, " Chap. xix, 21. w 2 Chron. xviii, 2. › Amos vi, 4. 1 Chron. xii, 40. t 1 Kings i, 9. This slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine." The same custom seems to have continued to the very close of their national state; for, in the parable of the marriage-feast, the invitation runs: "Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage." In the feasts of Homer, we discover the same kind of preparations; in every entertainment, the fatted ox is the principal article, and not unfrequently, the sole dish at table. This remarkable coincidence in the customs of two nations so distant from each other, proves its general prevalence among the people of the east. Many of them, however, like the modern Hindoos, abstained entirely from the use of flesh. The Egyptians and Phœnicians, we are assured by Porphyry, would rather have devoured a human victim, than tasted the flesh of an ox. The Cyrenian and African shepherds, if the testimony of Herodotus is entitled to credit, refused to shed the blood of an ox, or to eat his flesh;a and, according to Ælian, if a Phrygian killed an ox which had been yoked in the plough, he was punished with death. The same. law formerly existed in Greece. The ox, says Varro, is the companion of men in the labours of the field, and the minister of Ceres; the ancients, therefore, felt so great an interest in his preservation, that they inflicted capital punishment on his destroyer. The poets of Greece and Rome contend, that in the golden and silver ages, when mankind lived agreeably to nature, in simplicity and * Isa. xxii, 13. y Matth. xxii, 4. 2 Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, cap. 32, p. 313, 314. a Hist. lib. i, cap. 100. De Re Rust. lib. ii, cap. 5. b De Nat. Animal. lib. xii, cap. 34. innocence, they refused to stain their hands with a bullock's blood; and that this nefarious practice entered with the brazen, or, according to some, with the iron age, when degenerate man, become cruel and voracious, gave way to every vicious propensity. "Ante etiam sceptrum Dictæi regis et ante 2 Geor. 1. 536... But so inconsistent are the conduct and sentiments of these renowned heathens, that while, like the Hindoos of modern times, they shuddered at the thought of spilling the blood or tasting the flesh of a bullock, they reckoned it no crime in most cases, to shed the blood of a fellowcreature; they felt no reluctance to sacrifice the life of a neighbour in private revenge, or in public sacrifice, nor to light up the flames of war, and riot in the carnage of battle. But to these mawkish refinements of heathen sages and poets, we have to oppose the example of Abraham, Elisha, Josiah, and a multitude of others, equally venerable for their wisdom and their holiness. And, what is infinitely more, we have to oppose the express grant of Jehovah himself, who made, and who graciously takes care of oxen: "Every moving thing," said he to Noah, "shall be meat for you; even as the green herb, have I given you all things." This grant was long afterwards confirmed to Israel in the wilderness in these terms; "These are the beasts which ye shall eat; the ox, the sheep, and the goat." е The products of the dairy are scarcely less valuable; but these are so well known, and the texts of Scripture which allude to them so perspicuous, as to render any remarks upon them unnecessary. d Gen. ix, 3. • Deut. xiv, 4. The curious reader may consult Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, cap. 315-317. The Sheep. The Syrian sheep are of two kinds; the Bedouin, which differ in no respect from the larger kind of sheep in Britain, except that their tails are somewhat longer and thicker; the other is a kind often mentioned by travellers, on account of their extraordinary tails, which are very broad and large, according to Elian, a foot and an half in breadth. In Arabia the tails of one kind of sheep are not less than four feet and an half in length, terminating in a small appendix,which turns back upon them. These tails are of a substance between fat and marrow, and are not eaten separately, but mixed with the lean meat in many of the Syrian dishes; they are also frequently used instead of butter. A common sheep of this kind (without the head, feet, skin, and entrails), weighs sixty or seventy English pounds, of which the tail usually weighs fifteen pounds and upwards. This species is far the most numerous, both in Syria and in Palestine, and was probably the kind which bled on the Jewish altars. The extraordinary size and deliciousness of their tails, give additional importance to the law in which Moses commands, that when a sacrifice of peace offerings should be made by fire unto the Lord, the fat which was reserved as sacred to God, and particularly the whole rump or tail taken off hard by the back bone, should be burnt upon the altar.i To command, by an express law, the tail of a British sheep to be offered in sacrifice to God, might well surprise us; but the wonder ceases when we are told of those broad * De Nat. Animal. lib. iii, cap. 3, and lib. x, cap. 4. h Buffon's Nat. Hist. vol. vi, p. 208. Russel's Hist. of Aleppo, vol. ii, p. 147. tailed eastern sheep, and the extreme delicacy of that part which was so particularly specified in the statute. k In a wild state, or when suffered to rove undisturbed in extensive pastures, the sheep is a robust and active animal, and capable of enduring, without injury, great fatigue. His talents, it must be admitted, are not so brilliant as those of some other quadrupeds; but he does not appear to be that stupid, defenceless, timid creature, which Buffon represents him in his elaborate pages. It has been justly observed, that all tame animals lose a portion of that sagacity, dexterity, and courage, which they are obliged to exert against their enemies in a wild state, because they have long been accustomed to rely upon the protection of man. Sheep, when enslaved by men, tremble at the voice of the shepherd or his dog. But on those extensive mountains, where they are allowed to range almost without control, and where they seldom depend on the shepherd's aid, they display a very different character: animated by a spirit of liberty and independence, a ram, or a wedder, in this situation, boldly attacks a single dog, and often comes off victorious. But when the danger is more alarming, like a warlike animal of a higher order, they trust not to the prowess of individuals, but have recourse to the collected strength and energy of the whole flock. On such occasions, they draw up into one compact body; they place the young and the females in the centre; and the strongest males take the foremost ranks, keeping close by the side of one another. Thus an armed front is presented on all quarters, and in this manner they wait with firmness and intrepidity the approach of the foe. Nor does Harm. vol. iii, p. 329. Bochart. Hieroz. lib. ii, p. 421. |