The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1828-01-02
From BIacklOood's Ediaburg Magazine.
ANECDOTES OF SHEEP.
BY THE ETTRIcK SHEPHERD.


The Sheep has scarcely any marked
character, save that Of natural affection. of
which 1t possesses very great share. 1t
IS otherwise a stupid, Indifferent animal.
having few wants and fewer expedients
The old black-faced, or forest breed, have
far more powerful capabilities than any of
the finer breeds that have been introduced
into Scotland, and therefore the few anec-
dotes that have to relate, shall be confn-
ed to them.
| have heard of sheep returning from
Yorkshire to the Highlands. This is Ger
tain, that when one, or few shann eAt
away IRON the rest of their acQualntances,
they retuTn homeward with great eager
ness and perseverance,. have lived be-
side droVe-foad tho better part of nv
life, and many stragglers have 1 seen bend
ing their steps northward in the spring of
the year. A shepherd rarely sees these
journeyers' twice if he sees them in the
morning, they are gone long before night :.
and if he sees them at night they will be
gone many miles before morning. This
strong attachment to the place of their
nativity Is much more predominant in our
aboriginal breed, than in any of the other
kinds with which | am acquainted
A shepherd in Blackhouse brought few
sheep from another in Crawmel, about ten
miles distant. In the spring following, one
of the ewes went back to her native place,
and yeaned on a wild hill called Crawmill
Craig. On certain day, about the begin
ming of July following, the shepherd went
and brought home his eve and handbook
the fleece from the eve, and kept the lamb
for one Of his stock. The lamb lived and
throve, and never offered. to leave home
but when three years of age, and about to
( have her first lamb she vanished and the
morning after, the Crawmel shepherd, in
going his rounds, found her with a new
yeaned lamb on the very gar of the Craw-
mel Craig, where she was LANDED herself.
She remained there till the first week of
July, the time when she was brought, a
4 lamb herself, and than she came home
with hers of her own accord and this
custom she continued Annually with the
greatest punctuality as long as she lived.
| At length her lambs, when they came OF
age, began the same practice, and the
shepherd was obliged to dispose of the
J whole breed.
But with regard to their natural afec-
ed are without number, stupid and action
less creatures as they are. When one
| loses its sight in flock of short sheep il
} is rarely abandoned to itself in that hap
less and helpless state. Some one always
attaches itself to it, and by bleating calls
it back from the precipice, the lake, the
pool, and all dangers whatever.
There is another manifest provision Of
nature with regard to these animals, which
is, that the more inhospitable the land is on
which they feed, the greater their kindness
and attention to their young. once herd
/, ed two years on wild and hare farm, call
ed Willenslee, on the border of Mid-Loth-
ian, and of all the sheep | ever saw, these
were the kindest and most affectionate tc
Y their Young. | was often deeply affected
al scenes which | witnessed there. We
had one very hard winter, so that our sheer
: grew lean in the spring, and the thwarter-
I'LL, Ia sort of paralytic affection came among
them, and carried off a number Often
have ! seen these poor victims, when fallen
down to rise no more, even when unable to
lift their heads from the ground, holding
up the leg, to invite the starving lamb tc
the miserable pittance that the udder still
could supply. ] had never seen aughl
more painfully affecting.
1t is well known that it is custom with
shepherds, when a lamb dies, if the mother
have suficiency of milk, to bring her in
and put another lamb to her. I have de-
scribed the process somewhere else-it is
done by putting the skin Of the dead lamt
upon the living one the eve Immediately
|, acknowledges the relationship, and aftel
the skin has warmed on it, so as to give j
, something Of the smell of her own proge