Hayes.] 412 [March 18, 



possessed of a race with fine and white wooh The beautiful compari- 

 son in the Song of Solomon which might seem to suggest the exist- 

 ence of a choice race of these animals, "Thy hair is as a flock of goats 

 that appear from Mount Gllead" taken in connection with the verse 

 following, "Tliy teeth are like a flock of sheep that are shorn, which 

 come up from the washing," would seem to intimate that the color was 

 referred to by the poet as the jDoint of resemblance; while the first 

 comparison, to be flattering to youthful beauty, must imply that the 

 color was black and not white. 



Coming down to the Greek authors, — Homer and Hesiod, though 

 frequently mentioning the goat as a domestic animal, make no allu- 

 sion to any particular race. ./Elian, referring to the goats of Lycia 

 and the practice of shearing them like sheep, says that the wool is 

 used for cords and cables. Appian mentions the stuffs known under 

 the name of Kod/.ta from Cilicia, the ancient name of the country 

 in which Angora is situated, as a means of protection against projec- 

 tiles; implying that the tissue of the goats of Cilicia were not distin- 

 guished for their fineness. Virgil gives the wool of the goat no other 

 destination than to serve for the necessities of the camp and for the 

 use of poor sailors : — 



^'•Usum in castrorum et miseHs velamina nautis." 



Columella, the great writer on Roman agriculture, quotes this line 

 of Virgil as applicable to the covering of goats, and while tracing the 

 qualities whi<;h a perfect animal should possess, excludes all resem- 

 blance to the Angora goat by demanding that the hair should be black. 

 Strabo, bom in the town of Amasia, very near the present domain of the 

 Angora goat, makes no mention of goats of that country distinguished 

 for their fleeces, although he remarks upon the different races of fine 

 wooled sheep found in many places in Asia Minor. The author 

 whom I am followinsj; observes that the most careful reseai'ch amonir 

 the Byzantine M'riters, after the Roman possessions became the patri- 

 mony of a barbarous people, has not afforded the least indication of a 

 fine and white wooled goat. It was not until the year 1555, that the 

 Angora goat was distinctly made known tlirough the Father Belon, 

 who had travelled in Asia Minor, by a brief but sufficiently charac- 

 teristic description. The silence of the classic authors in respect to 

 any goat with fine and white fleece would seem to place It beyond 

 doubt that the jsrogenltors of this animal were introduced into Asia 

 Minor at a comparatively recent period, when the country was invaded 

 by barbarous and pastoral races, either Turks or Arabs. M. Tchi- 

 hatclieff observes that the Arabs have never formed stable establish- 

 ments in Asia Minor, while the Turkish race is the only one among 

 the modern invaders of that country which came in search of a per- 



