Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 232, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1911 — LAMBS AS BURNT OFFERINGS [ARTICLE]

LAMBS AS BURNT OFFERINGS

Sacrifice* for Benefit of Flock* Mad* by Shepherd* of the British isles. ■ ’ ~ -'U Adelaide Goeset'i “Shepherd* of Britain” tells us that a lamb was burned alive by a farmer in recent time* to deliver hl* flock* from a spell which he believed to have been cast upon them, and that Prof. Rhys knew a very old woman who told him that she remembered seeing a live sheep burned as a sacrifice. A lady contributor states that lambs have been sacrificially burned, whether alive or not she does not say, within living memory in the Isle of Man May day. The author, as well as one of her contributors, believes that the name collie is taken from the black-faced Highland sheep, which were formerly called collies or colleys; hence the dogs which drove them came to be called colli* dogs, now abbreviated into collies. It may astonish some southerners to learn that in Shetland, during the winter, when the pastures have become bare of grass, the sheep, and for that matter, the ponies also, feed largely upon seaweed; but this is not so much to be wondered at when we remember that human beings sometimes eat th* same food on the west coast of Ireland. One of the greatest enemies of the shepherd‘is an eagle, when he takes to lamb eating, which very many eagles do. "The eagle is the most voracious glutton, and the best chance for the shepherd to take his revenge is when he weathers on a bird gorged to the beak with downed mutton. Then the prince of the air and the moan* tains may be knocked senseless with a staff.”

In return for the pleasure of reading her book we offer the author the following information relating to sheep. As Is well known, there is no bad habit oY which it is more difficult to break a dog than that of chasing sheep. In many cases all that can be done is to destroy the dog. The next neighbor of the reviewer had a pack of hounds, one of which became a confirmed and apparently incurable sheep runner. It* master had also a fine flock of Shropshire sheep, and selecting the largest and most powerful ram he coupled the delinquent to it and turned them into a large grass field. Much alarmed at being attached to its canine companion, the ram galloped furiously round and round the field, dragging the reluctant hound after it until both lay down thoroughly exhausted, Nothing would induce the hound ever to look at a Sheep again. Indeed, Instead of running after sheep, for the future it ran away from them. —The Tablet