On ewes 1

EWES are familiar, tame beasts, which provide milk and wool and eventually skin and meat for their masters in return for a moderate amount of pasture and tending; indeed, even their dung serves as a medicine for many diseases. The ewe also takes pity on those of its own kind, for when a healthy ewe sees a sick one suffering from the heat, it places itself in the way of the sun in order to create shade for the sufferer. Therefore let an unfeeling man blush when he fails to imitate the kindliness of a beast. Peals of thunder cause solitary ewes to have abortions, but not one that forms part of a flock. When the wind blows cold they conceive males, but females when there is a warm breeze; hence it is preferable if lambs are born in the winter season. The milk of black ewes is of better quality and so is that of white she-goats, the latter colour being much more common in cold lands. Among all animals the ewe gives a good quantity of milk for a longer time, that is to say, for eight months. ² If they are charmed with the sound of music they graze better, and this is why shepherds are represented as flute-players. Ewes live ten to fourteen years. ³ In springtime they die if they have fed on honeydew, and in the autumn from gorging themselves unduly on ears of corn, especially if they drink immediately afterwards, since the grains swell and burst their bowels. Against other illnesses, however, Albertus gives a remedy. Take a ram’s stomach, cook it in wine, mix it with water, and give this liquid to the ewes to drink; the sickness will then be cured. It is hard to drive a ewe out of the house, for, once chased away, it runs in again, even if the building is fiercely ablaze.