Part 2 — CHAPTER IV. GOATS-HAIR.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE GOAT—ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES, ETC.

Sheep-breeding and Goats in China—Probable origin of sheep and goats—Sheep and goats coeval with man, and always propagated together—Habits of Grecian goat-herds—He-goat employed to lead the flock—Cameo representing a goat-herd—Goats chiefly valued for their milk—Use of goats’-hair for coarse clothing—Shearing of goats in Phrygia, Cilicia, &c.—Vestes caprina, cloth of goats’-hair—Use of goats’-hair for military and naval purposes—Curtains to cover tents—Etymology of Sack and Shag—Symbolical uses of sack-cloth—The Arabs weave goats’-hair—Modern uses of goats’-hair and goats’-wool—Introduction of the Angora or Cashmere goat into France—Success of the project.

The inquiry into the origin and propagation of the Goat, no less than that of the sheep, may justly be considered a subject for interesting investigation. Goats were no less highly prized by the ancient inhabitants of Greece and Italy than by the modern. We have seen, that the great value of sheep always consisted in its fleece. The goat, on the contrary, was more valued for the excellence and abundance of its milk, and for its suitableness to higher and more rugged and unproductive land [368].

We observe a clear allusion to this distinction between the principal uses of sheep and of goats in the twenty-seventh chapter of the book of Proverbs[369]. The management and use of goats has from time immemorial formed a striking feature in the condition of man, and especially of those nations which belong to the Caucasian, or, as Dr. Prichard more properly denominates it, the Iranian or Indo-Atlantic variety of our race [370]. Their habits of sheep-breeding seem no less characteristic than the form of their countenances, a no less essential part of their manner of life than any other custom, by which they are distinguished: and, as all the circumstances, which throw any light upon the question, conspire to render it probable, that the above-mentioned variety of the human race first inhabited part of the high land of central Asia, so it is remarkable, that our domestic sheep and goats may with the greatest probability be referred to the same stock with certain wild animals, which now overspread those regions. The sheep, as has been already observed in chapter I., is regarded as specifically the same with the Argali; and in the opinion of Pallas, which has been very generally adopted by zoologists, the goat is the same with the Ægagrus, a gregarious quadruped, which occupies the loftiest parts of the mountains extending from the Caucasus to the South of the Caspian Sea, and thence to the North of India [371]. Indeed the history of these animals is so interwoven with the history of man, that those naturalists have not reasoned quite correctly, who have thought it necessary to refer the first origin of either of them to any wild stock at all. They assume, that these quadrupeds first existed in an undomesticated state, that is, entirely apart from man and independent of him; that, as he advanced in civilization, as his wants multiplied, and he became more ingenious and active in inventing methods of supplying them, the thought struck him, that he might obtain from these wild beasts the materials of his food and clothing; and that he therefore caught and confined some of them and in the course of time rendered them by cultivation more and more suitable to his purposes.

We have no reason to assume, that man and the two lesser kinds of horned cattle were originally independent of one another. So far as geology supplies any evidence, it is in favor of the supposition, that these quadrupeds and man belong to the same epoch. No properly fossil bones either of the sheep or goat have yet been found, and we have no reason to believe, that these animals were produced until the creation of man. But, as we must suppose, that man was created perfect and full-grown, and with those means of subsistence around him, which his nature and constitution require, there is no reason why the sheep and the goat may not have been created in such a state as to be adapted immediately both for clothing and for food, or why it should be considered more probable that they were at first entirely wild. They may have been produced originally in the same abode, which was occupied by that variety of the human race, to whose habits and mode of life the use of them has always been so essential; and, if we assume, that this abode was somewhere in the elevated land of central Asia, in the region, for example, of Armenia, we adopt an hypothesis, which explains in the most simple and satisfactory manner the apparent fact of the propagation not only of men, but of these quadrupeds with them, from that centre over immense regions of the globe.

With regard to historical evidence, it is certainly very defective. No express testimony assures us of the facts included in the above-named hypothesis. One thing, however, is certain, and it appears very deserving of attention, viz. that the sheep and the goat have always been propagated together. We find great nations, which had no acquaintance with either of these quadrupeds, but depended for their subsistence upon either oxen or horses. We find others, on the contrary, to whose mode of life the larger quadrupeds were of much less importance than the smaller; but we find none, which were accustomed to breed sheep without goats, or goats without sheep.

The reader will find numerous illustrations of this fact on reviewing the evidence contained in the preceding chapters. General terms were employed in the ancient world to include both sheep and goats[372]. Where more specific terms are used, we still find “rams and goats,” “ewes and she-goats” mentioned together. Sheep and goats were offered together in sacrifice, and the instances are too numerous to mention, in which the same flock, or the wealth of a single individual, included both these animals.

In consequence of this prevailing association of sheep and goats, they are often represented together in ancient bas-reliefs and other works of art. Of this we have a beautiful example in the Rev. Robert Walpole’s collection of “Travels in various countries of the East.” At the end of the volume is a plate taken from a votive tablet of Pentelic marble dedicated to Pan, and representing five goats, two sheep, and a lamb. As the goats are in one group, and the sheep and lamb in another, the artist probably designed to represent a flock of each. For, though sometimes mixed in the same flock, the two kinds of animals were generally kept apart; and to this circumstance our Savior alludes in his image of the shepherd dividing the sheep from the goats[373].

A sheep and a goat are seen reposing together in a Roman bas-relief in the Monumenta Matthæiana, vol. iii. tab. 37. fig. 1.

Rosselini gives two paintings from Egyptian tombs, which exhibit both sheep and goats[374]; and he mentions an inscription on the tomb of Ranni, according to which that person had 120 goats, 300 rams, 1500 hogs, and 122 oxen.

In the account given in chapter II. of the Sicilian Daphnis, an epigram by Callimachus on Astacides, who was a goatherd in Crete, was partially quoted, probably remarkable for his beauty and his immature death. The translation of the passage will now be given.

Theocritus (Idyll. vii. 12-20.) describes a goatherd of Cydon in Crete, named Lycidas; and from the account which he gives of his attire, we may judge of that commonly used in ancient Greece by the same description of persons. He wore on his shoulders the dun-colored hide of a shaggy goat, and an old shawl was fastened about his breast with a broad girdle. In his right hand he held a crook of wild olive.

The same author (Idyll. iii. 5.) mentions a fine strong he-goat, which was brought from Lybia to Sicily. The design of its transportation was, no doubt, to improve the breed. Probably Chromis, the Lybian (Idyll. i. 24.), who resided in Sicily, had migrated there to undertake the management of goats and to improve their quality.

Maximus Tyrius (Diss. xxvii.) seems to suppose, that a flock of goats could not even exist without the music of the syrinx. “If you take away,” says he, “the goatherd and his syrinx, you dissolve the flock of goats; in like manner, if you take away reason from the society of men, thus depriving them of their leader and guide, you destroy the flock, which by nature is tame, but may be injured by a bad superintendence.”

The he-goat was employed to lead the flock as the ram was among sheep. The following passages of scripture allude to this custom. “Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he-goats before the flocks.” Jer. l. 8. “Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats.” Zech. x. 3. In Proverbs xxx. 31., according to the Septuagint version, we read of “the goat which leads the flock.” Julius Pollux (Lib. i. cap. 12. sect. 19.) says, that “The he-goat leads the goats[375].”

On a cameo in the Florentine Museum there is a representation of an ancient goatherd[376]. The goatherd holds the syrinx in his left hand, and a young kid in his right. A goat stands beside him, and his dog appears partially concealed within a kennel formed in the rock, upon which the goatherd is seated. The herdsman is represented sitting under an aged ilex. At least this supposition accords with the language of Tibullus already quoted.

A modern authoress, who spent some of the summer months in the year 1819 among the mountains east of Rome, notices goats in the following terms as part of the stock of the farmers in that country.

“We frequently walked to one of these little farms, to meet the goats coming in at night from the mountain. As the flock crowded down the broken road leading to the fold, followed by their grotesque-looking shepherd and his rough dogs, the pet-kids crowding round their master and answering to his call, we could not help thinking of the antique manners described by the poets, and represented in the pictures of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

“The goats are the most useful domestic animals. Here no other cheese or milk is tasted. Besides, the ricotta, a kind of curd, and junkets, are made of goats’-milk, and, with bread serve many of the country people for food[377].”

From Athenæus[378] we learn the superior excellence of the goats of Scyros and Naxos.

Virgil (l. c.), after mentioning the use of goats for food, goes on to show their contributions to the weaver.

The last line of this passage of Virgil is quoted by Columella (L. vii. 6.) in speaking of the utility of the he-goat;

For he himself is shorn “for the use of camps and to make coverings for wretched sailors.”

Virgil, moreover, has here followed Varro, who writes thus;

As the sheep yields to man wool for clothing, so the goat furnishes hair for the use of sailors, and to make ropes for military engines, and vessels for artificers. * * * * * The goats are shorn in a great part of Phrygia, because there they have long shaggy hair. Cilicia (i. e. hair-cloths), and other things of the same kind, are commonly imported from that country. The name Cilicia is said to be derived from the circumstance, that in Cilicia goats were first shorn for this purpose. De Re Rustica, L. ii. c. ii. p. 201. ed. Bip.

The language of Varro in this passage indicates, that the female goat was shorn as well as the male; and that the excellence of goats’-hair, which was used only for coarse articles, consisted in its length. Columella mentions the long bristly hair of the Cilician goats[379].

Aristotle says, “In Lycia goats are shorn, as sheep are in other countries.” Hist. Anim. viii. 28. This testimony of Aristotle agrees with that of his nephew and pupil, Callisthenes, who says (ap. Ælian. de Nat. Anim. xvi. 30.), “that in Lycia goats are shorn just as sheep are everywhere else; for that they have a very thick coat of excellent hair, hanging from them in locks or curls; and that this hair is twisted so as to make ropes, which are used in navigation instead of cables.”

Pliny, in his account of goats[380], says, “In Cilicia and about the Syrtes they are covered with hair, which admits of being shorn.” From this it may be inferred, in conformity with the testimonies already cited from Varro and Virgil, that the longest and best goats’-hair was obtained in Cilicia, and on the coast of Africa opposite to Sicily and Malta, the modern Tripoli. It is remarkable, that Virgil, in order to designate the latter district, refers to the romantic river Cinyps, which flowed through it, observing the same practice, which we have seen to be so common with the poets in regard to the countries noted for the produce of the most excellent wool. In the interior and more hilly portion of this district of Africa both sheep and goats are still reared[381].

The geographer Avienus asserts that goats’-hair was obtained for the purpose of being woven in the country of the Cynetæ in Spain[382]. Isidore of Seville, in his enumeration of the different kinds of cloth (Orig. xix. 22.), uses the following expressions: “Fibrini (vestis est) tramam de fibri lanâ habens: caprina.” Thus the text now stands, evidently defective. The writer no doubt alluded to a kind of cloth called caprina, because goats’-hair was used in the manufacture of it. Beckmann (History of Inventions, Eng. Trans., vol. iv. p. 224.) proposes to read, “tramam de fibri lanâ habens, stamen de caprinâ,” i. e. “having the woof of beaver-wool, the warp of goats’-wool.” But the ancients were unacquainted with the fine wool of certain goats, and it is highly improbable, that they used goats’-hair in the case referred to, since the “Vestes Fibrinæ” were of great value, as will soon be shown, and not made in any part of coarse materials.

The cloth of goats’-hair would be suitable for sailors, both on account of their hardy mode of life, and because it was better adapted than any other kind to bear exposure to water.

Its use as clothing to express mourning and mortification will be noticed presently.

The employment of goats’-hair for military and naval purposes was far more extensive, and is proved by the following passage from the Geoponica (xviii. 9.) in addition to the former testimonies.

Προσοδόυς δίδωσιν οὐκ ὀλίγας, τὰς ἀπὸ γάλακτος καὶ τύρου καὶ (σἀρκός)· πρὸς δὲ τούτοις τὰς ἀπὸ τῆς τριχός. ἡ δὲ θρὶξ ἀναγΚαία πρός τε σχοίνους καὶ σάκκους, καὶ τὰ τούτοις παραπλήσια, καὶ εἰς ναυτικὰς ὑπηρεσίας, οὔτε κοπτόμενα ῥᾳδίως, οὔτε σηπόμενα φυσικῶς, ἐὰν μὴ λίαν κατολιγωρηθῇ.

The goat yields no small profit from its milk, cheese, and (flesh). It also yields a profit from its hair, which is necessary for making ropes, sacks, and similar articles, and for nautical purposes, since it is not easily cut, and does not rot from natural causes, unless it be much neglected.—Yates’s Translation.

Cicero (in Verrem, Act i.) mentions Cilicia together with hides and sacks, and Asconius Pedianus in his Commentary on the passage (p. 95. ed. Crenii.) gives the following explanation: “Cilicia texta de pilis in castrorum usum atque nautarum.” Servius on Virgil, Georg. iii. 313. says, that these Cilicia, or cloths of goats’-hair, were used to cover the towers in sieges, because they could not be set on fire.

The reader is referred to the Poliorcetica of Lipsius, L. iii. Dial. 3. p. 158. for evidence respecting the use of hair ropes for military engines, and to L. v. Dial. ix. for passages from Thucydides, Arrian, Ammianus, Suidas, Vegetius, Curtius, and others, proving, that the besieged in cities hung Cilicia over their towers and walls to obviate the force of the various weapons hurled against them, and especially of the arrows, which carried fire.

From Exodus we learn[383], that the Israelites in the wilderness among their contributions to the Tabernacle gave goats’-hair, and that it was spun by women. The spun goats’-hair was probably used in part to make cords for the tent; but part of it at least was woven into the large pieces, called in the Septuagint “curtains of goats’-hair.” Such curtains, or Saga, of spun goats’-hair seem to have been commonly used for the covering of tents[384].

Cloths of the same kind were used for rubbing horses[385]. The term for goats’-hair cloth in Hebrew, Chaldee, and Syraic, is שק or סק, i. e. Shac, or Sac, translated ΣΑΚΚΟΣ in the Septuagint, and Saccus in the Vulgate version of the Scriptures. The Latin Sagum, appears to have had the same origin. In English we have Sack and Shag, scarcely differing from the oriental and ancient terms either in sound or sense.

Cilice, the modern French term for a hair-shirt, is immediately derived from Cilicium, the origin of which has been explained[386].

This kind of cloth, which was black or dark brown, the goats of Syria and Palestine being chiefly of that color even to the present day, is alluded to in the sixth chapter of Revelations[387], and in Is. l. 3. “I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sack-cloth their covering.” It was worn to express mourning and mortification. In Jonah we have a very remarkable case, for on this occasion blankets of goats’-hair were put on the bodies both of men and beasts, and one was worn even by the king of Nineveh himself[388]. When Herod Agrippa was seized at Cæsarea with the mortal distemper mentioned in Acts xii. (See chap. vi. p. 93.), the common people sat down on hair-cloth according to the custom of their country, beseeching God on his behalf.—Josephus, Ant. Jud. l. xix. cap. 8. p. 872. Hudson. So according to Josephus (Ant. Jud. l. vii. cap. 7. p. 299.), David fell down upon sack-cloth of the same description and lay on the ground praying for the restoration of his son.

Hence the use of the hair-shirt by devotees in more recent times. St. Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea in the fourth century, in answer to the question, Whether a monk ought to have besides his night-shirt (post nocturnam tunicam) a Cilicium or any other, says, “Cilicii quidem usus habet proprium tempus. Non enim propter usus corporis, sed propter afflictionem carnis inventum est hujuscemodi indumentum, et propter humilitatem animae[389].” He then adds, that as the word of God forbids us to have two shirts, we ought not to have a second except for the purpose here mentioned. From this it is clear, that the Cilicium was not commonly worn by the monks, but only at particular times for the sake of humiliation.

Dr. Sibthorp (in Memoirs, edited by Walpole,) informs us, that in the present day the shepherds of Attica “shear the goats at the same time with the sheep, about April or May,” and that the hair is made into sacks, bags, and carpets, of which a considerable quantity is exported. In modern as in ancient times, the inhabitants of Greece subsist in a great measure upon goats’-milk and the cheese made from it[390].

The wives of the Arabian shepherds still weave goats’-hair for their tents. This hair-cloth is nearly black, and resembles that of which our modern coal-sacks are made[391]. The Arabs also hang bags of the same cloth, containing barley, about the heads of their horses to supply them with food[392].

The goat, as is the case with some other quadrupeds, if confined to a country, which is hot in summer and very cold in winter, is always protected in the latter season by an additional covering of fine wool beneath its long hair. A specimen of the Syrian goat in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow shows both the hair and the wool. In Kerman and Cashmere this very fine wool is obtained by combing the goats in the spring, when it becomes loose; and, having been spun into yarn, it is used to make the beautiful shawls brought from those countries.

We will now conclude this chapter with the following interesting communication from Mr. E. Riley, being the substance of a paper lately read before the Society of Arts, London.

Mr. Riley “in 1825 and 1828 transported to that territory two flocks of the finest sheep procurable throughout Germany, my father had also long contemplated introducing there the celebrated Cashmere goat, anticipating that the fulfilment of his views would, in proving advantageous to himself, become also of ultimate benefit to the colony; in which expectation, he has been encouraged from the results that have attended the importation of the Saxon breed of sheep into their favored climates, the wools of New South Wales, and in proportion to their improvement, those also of Van Dieman’s Land being now eagerly purchased by the most intelligent manufacturers in preference to those of equal prices imported from any part of Europe.

“With this object in view, he subsequently, during an agricultural tour on the Continent, directed my attention to the Cashmere flocks of Mons. Ternaux, and in October 1828, I met this distinguished man at his seat at St. Onen (Mons. Ternaux is a great shawl manufacturer and a Peer of France,) where he preserved the elite of his herds; the animals were a mixture of various sizes and colors, from a perfect white to brown, with scarcely any stamped features as if belonging to one race exclusively; they were covered with long coarse hair, under which so small a quantity of soft short down was concealed, that the average produce of the whole collection did not exceed three ounces each; therefore, under these unfavorable circumstances, my father deferred for a time his intention of sending any of them to Australia.

“I was then advised by the Viscomte Perrault de Jotemps, to see the stock of M. Polonceau at Versailles, he having, by a happily selected cross, succeeded in increasing the quantity and value of the qualities of the Cashmere goat beyond the most sanguine anticipations, and in consequence of his enlightened taste for agricultural pursuits, was also honored with the directorship of the model farm at Grignon. He became among the first to purchase a chosen selection of the original importation of the Cashmere goat from M. Ternaux, and some time after seeing, at one of the estates of the Duchesse de Beri, an Angora buck with an extraordinary silkiness of hair, having more the character of long coarse but very soft down, he solicited permission to try the effects of a union with this fine animal and his own pure Cashmeres. The improvement even in the first drop was so rapid that it induced him to persevere, and when I first saw his small herd they were in the third generation from the males produced solely by the first cross; the unwillingness however of M. Polonceau to part with any number of them at this period (the only alienation he has made from the favorite products of his solicitude being two males and two females to the King of Wirtemberg, for the sum of 3400 francs,) caused my father again to postpone his intentions until my return from the Australasian Colonies, judging that M. Polonceau would then probably be enabled to dispose of a sufficient number, and that the constancy and properties of the race would by that time be more decidedly determined.

“On my arrival in England at the close of 1831, he again recurred to his favorite project of introducing these animals into our colonies, for which purpose I went to France with the intention of purchasing a small flock of M. Polonceau, should I find all his expectations of the Cashmere Angora breed verified, which having perfectly ascertained, I at length succeeded in persuading M. Polonceau to cede to me ten females in kid, and three males, and I fortunately was able to convey the whole in health to London, with the intention of proceeding as speedily as possible with them to Port Jackson, looking sanguinely forward not only to their rapid increase but also to crossing the common goats of the country with this valuable breed, in full expectation that they may, exclusive of their own pure down, become thus the means of forming a desirable addition to the already much prized importations from New South Wales and Van Dieman’s Land. I am led to the conclusion that the latter result may be accomplished, as M. Polonceau, who has tried the experiment with the native goat of France, has obtained animals of the second cross very little inferior to the breed that has rendered his name so distinguished. He has also crossed the common goat with the pure Cashmere, but only obtained so tardy an amelioration, that it required eight or ten generations to produce a down simply equal to their inferior quantity and quality when compared to the produce of the Cashmere Angora.”

Mr. Polonceau has unremittingly persevered in the improvement so immediately effected, and has proved during the several years which have elapsed since the first experiment in the year 1822, that an entire satisfactory result in the union of the most essential qualities of down, abundance, length, fineness, lustre, and softness, was accomplished by the first cross, without any return having ensued to the individual characters of either of the primitive races, and in consequence, he has since constantly propagated the produce of that cross among themselves, careful only of preserving animals entirely white and of employing for propagation those bucks which had the down in the greatest quantity and of the finest quality with the smallest proportion of hair.

In 1826; the “Societie Royale et Centrale d’Agriculture de Paris” acquainted with the interesting result of M. Polonceau’s flock, being at that time in the third generation, and considering that the down of this new race was more valuable than that of the East, and that it was the most beautiful of filaceous materials known, as it combines the softness of Cashmere with the lustre of silk, awarded him their large gold medal at their session, 4th April, 1826, and nominated him a member of their society in the following year.

In 1827, at the exhibition of the produce of National Industry, the jury appointed to judge the merits of the objects exposed, also awarded him their medal.

At present the animals are in the twelfth generation, their health and vigor, the constancy of their qualities, and abundance of their down without any degeneration, prove that this new race may be regarded as one entirely fixed and established, requiring solely the care that is generally observed with valuable breeds; that is to say, a judicious choice of those employed for their reproduction, and in such a climate as New South Wales it may be reasonably expected that the brilliant qualities of their down may yet be improved as has been so eminently the case with the wool of the merino and Saxon sheep imported there.

M. Polonceau has goats that have yielded as many as thirty ounces of the down, in one season, and he states that the whole of his herd produce from twelve to twenty ounces; thus showing the astonishing advantages this new breed has over the uncrossed Cashmere, which never yield more than four ounces and seldom exceed two ounces each.

This gentleman also states, that, the Cashmere Angora goats, are more robust and more easily nourished than the common goat, and that they are less capricious and more easily managed in a flock; and from the experience he has already had, he finds them much more docile than even sheep. They prefer the leaves of trees, as do all other goats, but they thrive either on hay or straw, or green fodder, or in meadows; they also feed with equal facility on heaths, and on the most abrupt declivities, where the sheep would perish; they do not fear the cold, and are allowed to remain all the winter in open sheds. For the first year or two of M. P.’s experiments he thought it prudent to give them aromatic herbs, from time to time, but during the last six years he has not found it necessary. He knows not of any particular disease to which they are subject, his flock never having had any. M. P. arranges they should kid in March, but occasionally he takes two falls from those of sufficient strength during the year.

The down commences to grow in September, and developes itself progressively until the end of March, when it ceases to grow and detaches itself, unless artificially removed.

To collect the down, he waits the period when it begins to detach itself, and then the locks of down which separate from the skin with little force are taken off by hand; the down is removed from the animals every three or four days; in general it first begins to fall from the neck and shoulders, and in the following four or five days from the rest of the body; the collection is completed in the space of eight or ten days. Sometimes the entire down can be taken from the animal at one shearing, and almost in an unbroken fleece, when it begins to loosen. The shearing has the advantage of preserving more perfectly the parallelisms of the individual filaments, which much increase the facility of combing and preparing the down for manufacturing purposes.