Origin and Early History. 1 1 



goat (Capra angorensis, Linn.), which has long silky hair, 

 is occasionally bred. 



The wild goat of the rocks and hills of Palestine, and 

 of the Peninsula of Sinai, is occasionally mentioned in the 

 Biblical records. The Hebrew word is yd' el, from a root 

 meaning " to climb," and well describes the Ibex (Capra 

 Ibex), the Beden, or Jada, a relative of the Swiss stein- 

 bock, now pretty common in Arabia Petrea, and not very 

 rare in some parts of Palestine, as in the neighbourhood 

 of Engedi (" Fountain of the Kid "), near the Dead Sea.* 

 The wild Capra agagrus has not, I believe, been noticed 

 in Palestine. 



The Assyrians made use of the goat for the same 

 purposes as their relatives, the Hebrews : figures of 

 the domestic goat occur on the monuments ; it has high 

 horns either curving backwards or nearly erect ; in the 

 former case they divaricate, in the latter they a,re nearly 

 parallel. The cuneiform names of the he-goat, a-tu-du 

 and tsap-pa-ru, answer to the Hebrew 'attud and the 

 Chaldean tsdphtr already mentioned, and have the same 

 meaning of a he-goat. The skins were employed for 

 various purposes ; among others as swimming-bladders or 

 buoys. After removing the head and legs the skin was 

 prepared, perhaps steeped in tannin, and filled with air. 

 There may be seen on the monuments now in the British 

 Museum representations of Assyrian fishermen, sitting in 

 the water, riding cross-legged on these inflated skins ; and 

 on the bas-reliefs which show Assurnatsir-pal's campaigns 

 (circa 884 B.C.) figures of fugitives swimming to the for- 

 tress are seen, each one using an inflated goatskin as a 

 buoy. The Assyrians frequently make mention of wild- 

 goats ya-e-li (comp. the Hebrew) probably denoting 

 thereby the Asiatic ibex, noticed above, which is found 



* See a coloured drawing of the Capra Beden in Tristram's 

 " Fauna and Flora of Palestine," Plate 1J. 



