wide shoulders and loin, a long and large tail.  You should see also whether he has a black or a spotted tongue,[119] for such rams usually get black or spotted lambs.  You may judge them by their get, if their lambs are of good quality.  In buying sheep we practise the formalities which the law requires, following them more or less strictly in particular cases.  Some men in fixing a price per head stipulate that two late lambs or two toothless ewes shall be counted as one.  In other respects the traditional formula is employed thus:  the buyer says to the seller, “Do you sell me these sheep for so much?” And the seller answers, “They are your sheep,” and states the price.  Whereupon the buyer stipulates according to the ancient formula:  “Do you guarantee that these sheep, for which we have bargained, are in such good health as sheep should be; that there is none among them one-eyed, deaf or bare-bellied; that they do not come out of an infected flock and that I will take them by good right and title?”

“Even when this is done the title to the flock does not pass until they have been counted, but, nevertheless, the purchaser can hold the seller to the bargain if he does not make delivery, even though the purchase money has not passed, and by a like right the seller can hold the buyer if he does not pay up.

“I will next speak about those other four subjects which Scrofa outlined, namely:  the feeding, breeding, raising and physicking of sheep.  In the first place, one should see that provision is made for feeding the flock throughout the entire year, as well indoors as out.  The stable should be in a suitable location, protected against the wind, looking rather to the East than the South, on cleared and sloping ground so that it can be easily swept out and kept clean, for moisture not only rots the wool of the sheep but their hoofs as well and causes scab.  When sheep have stood for several days you should strew the stable with new bedding, so that they may be more comfortable and be kept cleaner, and thus eat with more appetite.  You should also contrive stalls separated from the others in which you may segregate the ewes about to yean, as well as any which may be ailing.  This precaution is practicable, however, only with sheep fed at the steading, but those who graze their sheep in the mountain pastures and far from cover, carry with them wicker hurdles or nets, and other such conveniences with which they contrive folds for such separation.  Sheep indeed are grazed far and wide so that often it happens that their winter quarters are many miles from their summer pastures.”

“I know that to be true,” said I, “for my flocks winter in Apulia and spend the summer in the mountains above Reate:  thus the public cattle drifts between these two localities balance the separated pastures, as a yoke balances two baskets."[120]