accordingly, we find Abel
intrusted with this portion of his father's stock; for the Bible tells
us that "Abel was a keeper of sheep." What other animals were
domesticated at that time we can only conjecture, or at what exact
period the flesh of the sheep was first eaten for food by man, is
equally, if not uncertain, open to controversy. For though some
authorities maintain the contrary, it is but natural to suppose that
when Abel brought firstlings of his flock, "and the fat thereof," as a
sacrifice, the less dainty portions, not being oblations, were hardly
likely to have been flung away as refuse. Indeed, without supposing Adam
and his descendants to have eaten animal food, we cannot reconcile the
fact of Jubal Cain, Cain's son, and his family, living in tents, as they
are reported to have done, knowing that both their own garments and the
coverings of the tents, were made from the hides and skins of the
animals they bred; for the number of sheep and oxen slain for oblations
only, would not have supplied sufficient material for two such necessary
purposes. The opposite opinion is, that animal food was not eaten till
after the Flood, when the Lord renewed his covenant with Noah. From
Scriptural authority we learn many interesting facts as regards the
sheep: the first, that mutton fat was considered the most delicious
portion of any meat, and the tail and adjacent part the most exquisite
morsel in the whole body; consequently, such were regarded as especially
fit for the offer of sacrifice. From this fact we may reasonably infer
that the animal still so often met with in Palestine and Syria, and
known as the Fat-tailed sheep, was in use in the days of the patriarchs,
though probably not then of the size and weight it now attains to; a
supposition that gains greater strength, when it is remembered that the
ram Abraham found in the bush, when he went to offer up Isaac, was a
horned animal, being entangled in the brake by his curved horns; so far
proving that it belonged to the tribe of the Capridae, the fat-tailed
sheep appertaining to the same family.

LAMBS.

698. THOUGH THE LAMBING SEASON IN THIS COUNTRY usually commences in
March, under the artificial system, so much pursued now to please the
appetite of luxury, lambs can be procured at all seasons. When, however,
the sheep lambs in mid-winter, or the inclemency of the weather would
endanger the lives of mother and young, if exposed to its influence, it
is custom