THE SHEPHERD’S DAILY LIFE

Sheep-raising might seem at times a peaceful and even a somewhat monotonous business.  The flocks found their own food, grazing in the pastures.  Morning and night they had to be watered, the water being drawn from the well and poured into watering troughs.  Once or twice a day also the ewes and shegoats had to be milked.  When these chores were done it was only necessary to stand guard over the flock and protect them from robbers or wild animals.  This, however, had to be done by night as well as by day.  On these wide pastures there were no sheepfolds into which the animals could be securely herded as on the settled farms.  They slept on the ground, under the open sky, and the shepherds, like those in Bethlehem, in the story of Jesus’ birth, had to keep “watch over their flocks by night.”  So long as no enemies appeared there was in such an occupation plenty of time in which to think and dream of God and man and love and duty.  Very often, however, the dreamer’s reveries were interrupted, and at such times there was no lack of excitement.

=Wild beasts.=—­There were more beasts of prey in Arabia in those days than there are to-day.  In addition to wolves and bears, there were many lions, which are not now found anywhere in the world except in Africa.  So the sheepmen had to go well armed, with clubs, swords, and spears.  We would want a high-powered rifle if we were in danger of facing a lion.  The Hebrews defended their flocks against these powerful and vicious beasts with only the simplest weapons.  Such fights were anything but monotonous.

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| [Illustration:  A daric, or piece of money coined by Darius, one   |
| of the earliest specimens of coined money]                        |
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| [Illustration:  Ancient Hebrew weights for balances]               |
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| [Illustration:  Hebrew dry and liquid measures]                    |
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| Cuts on this page used by permission of the Palestine Exploration |
| Fund.                                                             |
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TRIPS TO TOWN

Among the most interesting events in the lives of the shepherds were their trips to town, when they sold some of their wool and bought grain, and linen cloth, and trinkets for the babies, and the things they could not find nor make on the grassy plains.  The raw wool was packed in bags and slung over the backs of donkeys.  On other donkeys rode two or more of the men of the tribe.  Sometimes, perhaps, a small boy was taken along on the donkey’s back behind his father to see the sights.  And for him the sights must have been rather wonderful—­the great thick walls of the town, the massive gates, the houses, row on row, and the people, more of them in one street than in the whole tribe to which he belonged!