Part 15 (2/2)

”Every nation is not fit for tending cattle, especially the Basculi and the t.u.r.duli [of Spain]. The Gauls are the best of all, particularly for draught cattle.

”In the matter of the purchase of shepherds, there are six usual methods of obtaining lawful t.i.tle to a slave: (i) by inheritance, (2) by due form of manc.i.p.ation, which is delivery of possession by one who has the legal right, (3) by the legal process called surrender in court (_cessio in jure_) from one who has that right, the transfer taking place where it should, (4) by prescriptive use (_usucapion_), (5) by purchase of a prisoner of war ”under the crown” (6) by auction at the distribution of some one's property by order of court under the process known as _bonorum emptio_.[149]

”The _peculium_ or personal property of the slave usually pa.s.ses with him to a new master unless it is specially excepted in the terms of sale: there is also the usual guaranty as to the health of the slave and that he has committed no theft or tort for which his master is legally responsible, and, unless the purchase is by manc.i.p.ation, the bargain is bound by an obligation of double indemnity, or in the amount of the purchase price alone, if that is the agreement.

”The shepherds should take their meals separately during the day, each one with his flock, but in the evening they should meet at a common supper under the supervision of the flock master.[150] It should be the duty of the flock master to see that every thing is provided which may be required by the flock or by the shepherds, chiefly the victuals for the men and medicine for the flock: for which the master should provide beasts of burden, either horses or some thing else which can carry a load on its back.

”As to what relates to the breeding of shepherds, it is easy, so far as concerns those who remain on the farm all the time because they can have a fellow servant to wife at the farmstead, for Venus Pastoralis demands no more. Some hold that it is expedient also to furnish women[151] for those who pasture the flocks in the Saltus and the forests and have no residence but find their shelter from the rain under improvised sheds: that such women following the flocks and preparing the food for the shepherds keep the men better satisfied and more devoted to their duty. But they must needs be strong though not deformed, and not less capable of work then the men themselves, as they are in many localities and as may be seen throughout Illyric.u.m, where the women feed the flocks or carry in wood for the fire and cook the food, or keep watch over the household utensils in their cottages.

”As to the method of raising their children, it suffices to say that the shepherd women are usually both mothers and nurses at the same time.”

At this Cossinius looked at me and said: ”I have heard you relate that, when you were in Liburnia, you saw women big with child bringing in fire wood and at the same time carrying a nursing child, or even two of them, thus putting to shame those slender reeds, the women of our cla.s.s, who are wont to lie abed under mosquito bars for days at a time when they are pregnant.”

”That is true,” I replied, ”and the contrast is even more marked in Illyric.u.m, where it often happens that a pregnant woman whose time has come will leave her work for a little while and return with a new born child which you would think she had found rather than borne.[152]

”Not only this, the custom of that country permits the girls as much as twenty years of age, whom they call virgins, to go about unprotected and to give themselves to whomever they wish and to have children before marriage.”

”As to what pertains to the health of man and beast,” resumed Cossinius, ”and the leech craft which may be practised without the aid of a physician, the flock master should have the rules written down: indeed, the flock master must have some education, otherwise he can never keep his flock accounts properly.[153]

”As to the number of shepherds, some make a narrow, some a broad, allowance. I have one shepherd for every eighty long wool sheep: Atticus here has one for every hundred. One can reduce the number of men required in respect of large flocks (like those containing a thousand head or more) much more readily than in respect of comparatively small flocks, like Atticus' and mine, for I have only seven hundred head of sheep, and you, Atticus, have, I believe, eight hundred, though we are alike in providing a ram for every ten ewes.

Two men are required to care for a herd of fifty mares: and each of them should have a mare broken for riding to serve as a mount in those localities where it is the custom to drive the mares to pasture, as often happens in Apulia and Lucania.”

_Of milk and cheese and wool_

XI. ”And now that we have fulfilled our promise, let us go,” said Cossinius.

”Not until you have added some thing,” I cried, ”concerning that supplemental profit from cattle which was promised; namely, of milk and cheese and the shearing of wool.”

So Cossinius resumed:

”Ewes' milk, and, after it, goats' milk, is the most nouris.h.i.+ng of all liquids which we drink. As a purgative, mares' milk ranks first, and, after it, in order, a.s.ses' milk, cows' milk and goats' milk, but the quality depends upon what has been fed to the cattle, upon the condition of the cattle, and upon when it is milked.

”So far as concerns the food of the cattle, milk is nouris.h.i.+ng which is made from barley and stover and other such kinds of dry and hard cattle food.

”So far as concerns its purgative qualities, milk is good when made from green stuff, especially if it is gra.s.s containing plants which, taken by themselves, have a purgative effect upon the human body.

”So far as concerns the condition of the cattle, that milk is best which comes from cattle in vigorous health and from those still young.

”So far as concerns the time of milking, that milk is best which comes neither from a 'stripper' nor from a recently fresh dam.

”The cheese made of cows' milk is the most agreeable to the taste but the most difficult to digest: next, that of ewes' milk, while the least agreeable in taste, but the most easily digested, is that of goats' milk.

”There is also a distinction between cheese when it is soft and new made and when it is dry and old, for when it is soft it is more nouris.h.i.+ng and digestible, but the opposite is true of old and dry cheese.

”The custom is to make cheese from the rising of the Pleiades in spring to their rising in summer, and yet the rule is not invariable, because of difference in locality and the supply of forage.

”The practice is to add a quant.i.ty of rennet, equal to the size of an olive, to two _congii_ of milk to make it curdle. The rennet taken from the stomachs of the hare and the kid is better than that from lambs, but some use as a ferment the milk of the fig tree mixed with vinegar, and some times sprinkled with other vegetable products.

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