"There Is No Difference Betweene These Rammes Of Africa And Others, Saue
Onely In Their Tailes, Which Are Of A
Great thicknes, being by so much the
grosser, but how much they are more fatte, so that some of their
Tailes
waigh tenne, and other twentie pounds a peece, and they become fatte of
their owne naturall inclination: but in Egypt there are diuers that feede
them fatte with bran and barly, vntill their tailes growe so bigge that
they cannot remooue themselves from place to place: insomuch that those
which take charge of them are faine to binde little carts vnder their
tailes, to the end they may haue strength to walke. I my selfe saw at a
citie in Egypt called Asiot, and standing vpon Nilus, about an hundred and
fiftie miles from Cairo, one of the saide rams tailes that weighed
fowerscore pounds, and others affirmed that they had seene one of those
tailes of an hundred and fiftie pounds weight. All the fatte therefore of
this beast consisteth in his taile; neither is there any of them to be
founde but onely in Tunis and in Egypt." (LEO AFRICANUS, edited by Dr.
Robert BROWN, III., 1896, Hakluyt Society, p. 945.)
XVIII., pp. 97, 100 n.
Dr. B. Laufer draws my attention to what is probably the oldest mention of
this sheep from Arabia, in Herodotus, Book III., Chap. 113:
"Concerning the spices of Arabia let no more be said. The whole country is
scented with them, and exhales an odour marvellously sweet.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 1167 of 1350
Words from 320260 to 320515
of 370046
