The Merino Sheep

by Banjo Paterson

People think that Merino sheep are gentle animals that do not cause trouble. They believe these sheep enjoy it when their shepherds cut their wool. But I am writing now to tell you the truth about the Merino sheep.

I am not saying that Merino sheep are dangerous. No-one could say that a sheep attacked him without a reason. If a Merino sheep attacked a man it would not use its teeth, it would try to cause trouble for its shepherd. Merino sheep are talented at two things: making trouble and dying.

If a group of Merino sheep see a fire, do they run away out of danger? No, they do not. They run around and around in a circle until the fire kills them. Merino sheep also drown from heavy rains because they don't walk away from a place that is flooding. The sheep won't move even if men shout at them. The sheep will wait until the flood comes and drowns them all.

A group of Merino sheep will walk as slowly as a snail when their shepherd needs them to be somewhere; but if a lamb runs away from the group, even a horse couldn't run faster than it. If the sheep are in a field with water in three corners of it, the sheep will all sit in the fourth corner and die of thirst.

When they walk out the gate, the sheep won't step over a piece of a tree if it is in their way. The sheep will only move when they want to. When a sheep does jump, it will jump metres over the tree. The sheep that follow it will jump even higher. A few of the sheep will always hurt themselves when jumping because they will fall on their heads. This will scare the other sheep and they will not leave the gate.

There is a story of a ship that was full of sheep. All of the sheep died because a goat jumped into the sea, and all the sheep followed it. I think the sheep were happy to jump into the sea; Merino sheep love to "follow the leader." A sheep won't go through an open gate but it will happily follow another sheep to its death.

There is no animal more stupid than the Merino sheep! A mother sheep never knows her own lamb by sight. Merino sheep can't see colours. She can hear her lamb's voice far away, even though other sheep are making noise. But when she gets close to her lamb she starts to smell all the other white lambs, and the black ones – even if her lamb is white.

There is another type of sheep in Australia, the cross-bred, or half-Merino animal. It’s just as much trouble as the Merino sheep. The cross-bred will get through, under, or over any fence you build. The cross-bred is never happy with its home. When it runs away, almost nothing can stop it. The trouble the Merino causes is quiet trouble. The trouble the cross-bred causes is very loud trouble.

There was a man who bought twenty cross-bred sheep. The sheep got out of their field and ate the vegetables in the neighbour's garden. The sheep began walking all over the town. They visited other sheep and made trouble with them.

The sheep's owner got letters from his neighbours. The neighbours told him to come get his sheep. The owner shut the sheep in the field, but the sheep got out of the field. So the owner got a boy to watch the sheep. But the boy fell asleep and the sheep left the field and destroyed a neighbour's garden.

One day there was a big flood. The man's Merino sheep could have run away to safety, but didn't and drowned. The man watched the dead animals in the water. The man had lost all his sheep. But he said, "I’m glad that my cross-bred sheep are dead. They made so much trouble." Just as he spoke there was a noise in the water, and the twenty cross-bred sheep swam to land and stood in front of him. They were the only sheep who lived of his twenty thousand sheep. The man started to cry. The cross-breds did what they do best – make their shepherds upset.

Nothing on earth will kill cross-bred sheep; nothing will keep Merinos alive. Merinos will die in every weather. If it is dry, they will die of thirst. If it is wet, they will die of disease.

The Merino and cross-bred sheep make many Australian farmers unhappy. Australian writers who work with the sheep are sad and serious writers. If a writer can write anything happy after being with the sheep, it’s rare!