14 The 'Book of the Goat. 



The word tragos denotes a " he-goat " ; the derivation 

 of the name is referred to tragein or trogein, " to gnaw," 

 in allusion to the habits of these animals. The tragodia 

 of the Athenians (Tragedy), (literally "goat-song"), 

 received its name either because a goat was the prize for 

 the play, or because this animal was sacrificed during its 

 performance, or because in the oldest tragedies the actors 

 were clad in goat-skins. A male kid not more than three 

 or four months old was called eriphos, while a young 

 goat of the first year was called C/rimaira, or Chimaros 

 by the Dorians. The derivation is from Cheima, 

 "winter," i.e., one winter old; it occurs in Icelandic 

 gymbr, "a ewe-lamb of a year old," whence the pro- 

 vincial English gimmer, which in the North is the name 

 of "a female sheep from the first to the second shear- 

 ing." Homer uses the word Chimaera of some fire- 

 spouting monster having the head of a lion, the tail of 

 a serpent, and the body of a goat (" II." vi. 181). Hesiod 

 (" Theog." 319) gives the creature three heads, that of a 

 lion, goat, and serpent. 



It was customary among the Greeks to give names to 

 their goats; thus, in Theocritus (" Id." v. 103) Lacon the 

 goatherd addresses two of his herd which were browsing 

 on the oak: "Be off, won't you, from the oak, you 

 Conarus and you Cyngetha? Feed eastward as Rhalarus 

 does." Conarus and Phalarus are the names of two he- 

 goats ; Cynaetha is a female. The fifth idyll of Theocritus 

 gives us interesting information connected with goats and 

 goatherds ; to it I must refer the reader. The Latin 

 writers on agriculture (" Scriptores Rei Rusticae "), as 

 Varro, Columella, and others, have discoursed on goats, 

 their management, their diseases, and the various breeds. 

 From what they have written it appears that the Romans 

 divided their goats into two classes : I. Those which had 

 fine hair and sawmoff horns. II. Those with shaggy 



