The
goat lives for eight years and the sheep for ten, but in most cases
not so long; the bell-wether, however, lives to fifteen years. In
every flock they train one of the rams for bell-wether. When he is
called on by name by the shepherd, he takes the lead of the flock: and
to this duty the creature is trained from its earliest years. Sheep in
Ethiopia live for twelve or thirteen years, goats for ten or eleven.
In the case of the sheep and the goat the two sexes have intercourse
all their lives long.
Twins with sheep and goats may be due to richness of
pasturage, or to the fact that either the ram or the he-goat is a
twin-begetter or that the ewe or the she-goat is a twin-bearer. Of
these animals some give birth to males and others to females; and
the difference in this respect depends on the waters they drink and
also on the sires. And if they submit to the male when north winds are
blowing, they are apt to bear males; if when south winds are
blowing, females. Such as bear females may get to bear males, due
regard being paid to their looking northwards when put to the male.
Ewes accustomed to be put to the ram early will refuse him if he
attempt to mount them late.
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