Moghza, bodbod and muntun are not exactly the right names to be called by on a breezy Sunday morning unless whoever gives the salutation is trying to rub someone on the wrong side.
But part of the herd of ruminants that were gathered at the main square in the rural village of Dingli two Sundays ago are called by those names: goat, billy goat and ram.
The meeting was called for a competition organised for the first time by Dingli local council for goats and sheep, with most of the owners hailing from Dingli and the rest from nearby Zebbug.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and believe it or not, these ruminants as well as their farm cousins, sheep, that were present at the gathering, were judged for their beauty, which in this case focused on the finer characteristics of the breed, including the size of the animals and the length of their coat of hair.
The contestants included 61 goats and sheep ranging in class from rams older than a year; he-goats aged between six months and a year old; she-goats aged between six months and a year old; and goats with kids. The ruminants were entered by nine herdsmen.
There were five categories in the goats section: Maltese, black and white; Alpine; Sanen; pigmy; and crossbreeds.
In the case of sheep the categories were Friesien, local, and crossbreeds.
Among the crowd of people who gathered in the village square was Joseph M. Abela, mayor of Dingli, who went about busily trying to have things, including trophies, in order.
Despite the ever-shrinking countryside, it seems that there is a resurgence of interest in goats and herdsmen are breeding more goats than they did about 10 years ago, according to Victor Muscat, one of the exhibitors.
Incidentally, the competition comes one month prior to the national contest for farm animals which is held annually at Buskett on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, known as Mnarja, and the competitors probably used the Dingli event as a preliminary to that show.
Mr Muscat, 47, from Dingli, known as tal-Bezuza, explained that both his father and grandfather used to breed goats. The number of goats had dwindled because the number of breeders had waned with the passage of time.
He has a herd of 30 goats and 55 sheep.
"My father used to offer the services of his billy goats and rams to impregnate goats and sheep belonging to other breeders. Goats are usually in heat from September but not in the summer months, although sheep are in heat throughout the year.
"When goats are slaughtered they are sold for their meat and that usually comes about when the goats are about 10 years old.
"I use the goats' milk to make gbejniet, cottage cheese. The milk gets a better flavour the more the goats graze."
Between June and the first rains, goats are not taken out to graze because of the lack of greenery. At this time of year they feed mainly on buzbiez (fennel). Otherwise they go for ingliza (cape sorrel), xnien (white clover), and hafur (common wild oat), and usually any green plant, including thistle, and love best gnawing at the bark of trees.
Although the Maltese goat, easily identifiable by its drooping ears, is the main breed used for the production of gbejniet, the milk of the Alpine goat has a somewhat more palatable taste, Mr Muscat said.
The Alpines were first introduced in Malta around 1986. On a day-to-day basis, a goat produces about a gallon of milk. Pigmy goats are kept as pets, they do not produce milk.
A goat can give birth to up to three kids at a time although there are times when only one kid is delivered. Every goat carries a red plastic tag on one of its ear lobes, for government vets to be able to identify blood samples, which are taken every six months to test for undulant fever - deni irqieq, which is synonymous with goats.
Between 50 to 60 years ago, Mr Muscat's father, who had nine children, used to go round with his herd of goats in Dingli selling fresh milk to households door to door.
Another breeder, Joseph Muscat, 61, a relative of Victor Muscat and also known as tal-Bezuza said that Maltese goats have long hair, and are either brown, or else white with black patches.
Mr Muscat said he did not use the goat's milk for gbejniet but for the raising of lambs to sell for their meat. He uses sheep's milk for gbejniet because of its higher fat content.
He has about about 60 sheep but only 15 goats. In the old days, a herd of goats could consist of as many as 300 goats. Such big numbers were possible because there were breeders who raised goats only and they could take them out on the streets with ease because traffic was not as heavy as today.
Mr Muscat said goats' milk is still sold to the Milk Marketing Undertaking but there was a time when pasteurised milk was sold in glass bottles, and bottles holding goats' milk had a foil top of a different colour from the silver foil top for the bottles of milk from sheep and cows.
The judges at the competition were Marlon Apap, Frankie Caruana, and Philip Aquilina from the department of agriculture.
The Mediterranean Fever Commission
Sir Temi Zammit (1864-1935) is best remembered, apart from his archaeological finds, for the elimination of undulant fever from the Maltese islands. The fever was fatal and apart from the indigenous population, it used to affect servicemen stationed here, which led the British government to set up the Mediterranean Fever Commission (1904-1907) to look into the scourge.
Commission chairman Sir David Bruce, who had discovered the Brucella Melitensis in the human spleen in 1887, asked Dr Zammit to join the commission.
The breakthrough came about when Dr Zammit traced the Brucella Melitensis in the blood of the goat.
People drinking goats' milk would be infected with the microbe, which Sir David had pinpointed as the cause of undulant fever. Incidentally, the fever is also known as Cyprus fever, Gibraltar fever, Malta fever, Mediterranean fever and Neapolitan fever, because it was widespread in the Mediterranean.
The affected person suffered from fever with a temperature rising at night to 41ºC, but falling by day. In terminal cases the victim's fever became progressively worse, rising to over 42ºC.
Before Dr Zammit's discovery, the cause of the malaise was thought to be contaminated drinking water and a lack of hygiene.
The discovery led to the elimination of undulant fever in Malta after 1938 through the pasteurisation of milk.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) investigated the diseases in vineyards that were inflicting economic losses to the French wine industry, after Emperor Napoleon III asked him to look into the matter. In 1864, in a vineyard in Arbois, Pasteur showed that wine diseases were the result of micro-organisms that could be eliminated by heating the wine to 55ºC for several minutes.
Called pasteurisation, the process is also applied to beer and milk.
Emulation of Malta suggested in London
The Illustrated London News had this about the sale of fresh milk at the doorstep. The piece was written in the 19th century:
"Our artist writes as follows concerning this sketch of a Maltese milkman:
"A complete cure to prevent the adulteration of London milk would be to adopt the Maltese custom of bringing the cow or goat to the door, and having the article direct from the animal.
"It is a plan which has much to recommend it: there is no need for cans; the cost or trouble of carrying the milk is done away with; and it would add a picturesque feature to the streets of London.
"In the morning here men may be seen with goats following them along the streets of Valletta. These men give an occasional cry, which may be 'milk', and when a door opens and a girl with a jug appears, one of the goats is called, and submits patiently to have her ample udders squeezed into the dish.
"These goats follow the man, after the manner of flocks in the East, and they seem to be well up in all the details of the milk trade, and to know the particular doors where they will be wanted".
The engraving is reproduced from Antique Malta 1842-1885, a catalogue of engravings and articles featured in The Illustrated London News and The Graphic. Published in 1982 by Nicolas Books, Valletta and London and printed by Progress Press, Valletta.