Flock of Sheep

Sheep are extremely useful animals: able to scratch a living from poor land, hardy, tasty, and wool-bearing. Given that nomads must take everything with them as they move across the world, sheep are three agricultural crops, milk, meat and wool, in self-propelled packages. Their milk feeds the young. Their meat fills men’s bellies. Their wool puts clothes on backs, and blankets to sleep beneath. There is, from a wise nomad’s point of view, very little to dislike about sheep, other than their attractiveness to wolves and other, human predators. As the sheep travel with nomads so must everything else to do with survival. Nomad tools, from looms to forges, are fully the equal of anything created by 'civilised' men, except they can be packed away and moved easily.