SHEEP (r&, ttY, with the varying forms I'M, Lst)Y, and My, the latter generallyused as a collective term, including goats ; Arab. zain ; a lamb under a year old ; ayil, the adult ram, but origi nally applied also to the males of other ruminants, such as deer, etc. ; rachel, a female or ewe sheep —all referable to Hebrew roots with apposite mean ings, deserving the more confidence since the earliest patriarchs of the nation, being themselves shepherds and graziers, had never at any time received this portion of their domesticated cattle from foreign nations, and therefore had indigenous names for them). Domestic sheep, although commonly re garded as the progeny of one particular wild species, are probably an instance, among many similar, where the wisdom of Providence has provided sub sistence for man in different regions, by bestowing the domesticating- and submissive. instincts upon the different species of animals which tbe human family might find in their wanderings ; for it is certain that even the American argali can be ren dered tractable, and that the Corsican mysmon will breed with the cotnmon sheep. The normal ani mal, from which all or ,the greater part of the western domestic races are assumed to be de scended, is still found wild in the high mountain regions of Persia, and is readily distinguished from two other wild species bordering on the same region. What breeds the earliest shepherd tribes reared in and about Palestine can now be only in ferred from negative characters ; yet they are suffi cient to show that they were the same, or nearly so, as the common horned variety of Egypt and continental Europe : in general white, and occa sionally black, although there was on the upper Nile a speckled race ; and so early as the time of Aristotle the Arabians possessed a rufous breed, another with a very long tail, and above all a broad-tailed sheep, which at present is commonly denominated the Syrian. These three varieties are
said to be of African origin, the red hairy, in par ticular, having all the characteristics to mark its descent from the wild Ovis Tragelaphus or Barbatus ^ or Kebsch of the Arabian and Egyptian ' mountains [RAMS' SKINS RED]. Flocks of the ancient breed, derived from the Bedouins, arc now extant in Syria, with little or no change in external characters, chiefly the broad-tailed and the com mon horned white, often witli black and white about the face and feet, the tail somewhat thicker and longer than the European. The others are chiefly valued for the fat of their broad tails, which taste not unlike marrow ; for the flesh of neither race is remarkably delicate, nor are the fleeces of superior quality. Sheep in the various conditions of existence wherein they would occur among a pastoral and agricultural people are noticed in numerous places of the Bible, and furnish many beautiful allegorical images, where purity, inno cence, mildness, and submission are portrayed— the Saviour 'himself being denominated the Lamb of God,' in twofold allusion to his patient meek ness and to his being the true paschal lamb, slain from the foundation of the world ' (Rev. xiii. S). Besides the words above noticed, the term ript,p, occurring only Gen. xxxiii. 19 ; Job xlii.
r, has been by some rendered sheep or lambs. [KEKTAH.]