Origin and Early History. 17 



warts (verriicnlce) as a mark of the most valuable 

 females. Goats breathe through the ears and not through 

 the nose; he quotes Archelaus as his authority. , An 

 equally absurd idea held by some of the ancients was that 

 the animal breathed through the horns. At sunset, as is 

 said, she-goats in the pastures never look at each other, 

 but lie back to back; at other times of the day they lie 

 facing each other. The beard is called aruncus, from the 

 Greek ypvyyos. Tf one of the flock is dragged by the 

 beard, the rest look on in stupid astonishment. 



In vEsop's fables the goat is generally represented as 

 being not over clever, as in that of the Fox which had 

 fallen into a well, and the Goat by whose assistance 

 Reynard got out. The Fox remarked to the Goat, 

 whom. he left in the well, " If you had half as much brains 

 as you have beard, you would have looked before you 

 leaped." Against this I will give what Pliny, on the 

 authority of an eye-witness, Mutianus, relates as to the 

 intelligence of the goat, and with this little story will 

 conclude this chapter : 



" Two goats coming from opposite directions met on a 

 very narrow bridge, which would not admit of either of 

 them turning round, and in consequence of its great length 

 they could not safely go backwards, there being no sure 

 footing on account of its narrowness, while at the same 

 time an impetuous torrent was rushing rapidly beneath ; 

 accordingly one of the animals lay down flat, and the other 

 walked over it." 



