A Mob of Sheep
T is still possible that the mob of sheep whose wanderings are referred to on Page 10 will wander a little farther. Some of them may even reach Kansu, their destination when they left Lyttelton on December 5, 1941. But whether they range as far as that or die in Tibet they will leave their mark on the sheep history of the world. A hundred years hence, and perhaps in a thousand, there will be some sheep in Tibet that are better than all the others, sheep which it will be a mark of distinction to own, whose wool will be a legend round the dung-fires, and for which now and again blood will be shed. They will be the descendants of the Lincolns, and Romneys, and Corriedales, and Merinos now reported to be grazing near Lhasa, and if the original mob moves a little north and a little west the biological circle will be complete. For if the origins of domestic sheep are obscure, the evidence seems to point to the Asiatic highlands between Tibet and Turkestan. There something wild was first tamed — a goat-like animal that probably had long hair and a short tail — and bred and fed into something that excited the cupidity of Europe. Now, thousands of years later, it has returned via New Zealand, not exactly an unrecognisable creature, but as different from the sheep that moved west in the dawn of history as Kindergarten is from the wild ass. It is possible too that man played the same part in its’ first journey as in its last. It did not leave Turkestan for better grass but because someone had a better sword or spear than its owner. It returned the way it set out, on foot and not by ’plane or lorry, because the Japanese had \driven the Chinese from the Burma Road. And in all its wanderings it has been a benefactor. No sheep in a million years has done anything but convert grass into food and clothing. Now the destiny of our little mob is to increase the length, the weight, the durability, and the warmth’ of the fleeces that keep human beings a ive, near the top of the world. -~
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 295, 16 February 1945, Page 7
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373A Mob of Sheep New Zealand Listener, Volume 12, Issue 295, 16 February 1945, Page 7
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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