Sheep

I was on the bus and thinking about black sheep. How that might be deemed politically incorrect today, but I wondered, as one does, about its origins. There is of course the nursery rhyme as well, which was about the only one I could remember, and actually enjoyed. The origins of this nursery rhyme and its variants are discussed here:



http://wapedia.mobi/en/Baa,_Baa,_Black_Sheep







I remember as a little boy in Weston-Super-Mare singing my heart out, and never realising the history behind it, nor of course the ubiquitous "Ring a Ring o' Roses". I then thought, and now I am proved wrong, that it was all to do with the 1665 Plague. But oh no, folklorists have corrected that origin:



http://wapedia.mobi/en/Ring_a_Ring_o%27_Roses







The thought of the sheep, got me thinking about just how much do I know about this ruminant. I do know now that there are 200 breeds, of these I am most familar with the Cheviot breed because this is found in Northumberland where I went to school, and the Merino. I saw Cheviots every day when I lived in Longhoughton, and moreover, despite being quite young, spent a great deal of my time chatting with a retired shepherd who used to use the stone wall near my parents' house as a resting post. He told me about the weather, the kinds of animals and birds you would see, etc. He struck me as an ideal figure - so much that when I did a career test to see what came up for ideal occupation - Bingo - shepherd. Of course the reality is anything but romantic. It is certainly not a job for me today. As I walked the hills once I heard about how sensitive the sheep were. How they were prone to heart attacks - and I can see why the Monty Python "Killer Sheep" sketch is so uproarishly funny:







http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode20.htm#7







What I saw of sheep, excepting the rams, were animals that were timid and flock minded. They would scarper if one stepped into their safety zone. Running up swifly the hills, with a sure-footedness that did not quite go with their shape. Now I also know that the domestic sheep bred from the Mouflon has undergone some incredible changes - I have seen paintings of sheep in the eighteenth century and they look bizarre. Actually, my memory has confused cattle with sheep, the sheep in Thomas Gainsborough's study can surely enter a flock today unnoticed:



http://www.ibras.dk/montypython/episode20.htm#7

Whereas the cow of the 18th century was bizarre:

http://austenonly.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/welch-cow117-correction.jpg



But the Merino with those short legs to prevent it from jumping over fences, now that is quite removed from the wild sheep.



We are all familiar with the Christian iconography and the image of Christ as a shepherd and the followers, as a flock. I again, love Psalm 23, because of the rhythm - I doubt if I paid attention to the message:



http://zemirotdatabase.org/view_song.php?id=28







For the Jews and Christians David and Jesus and other figures were seen as shepherds, and the people as a flock. What do flocks do? Well they follow rather blindly. They will follow a leader, and in sheep it is not the strongest one, but the one who reacts first. I am not so sure it is good metaphor of the prophet to people relationship. The Final Solution was based on flock mentality.



What also of the image of the people as sheep? Well, here Christ as the sacrificial lamb gives us a clue, because in earlier cultures, the sacrifices were human. The lot of sheep is not a very happy one.



This is how sheep were killed in the old days:



http://www.leafpile.com/TravelLog/Romania/Farming/Slaughter/Sheep/Sheep.htm