GOATSUCKER 



2518 



GOD 



The Angora goat is a valuable spiral-horned, 

 silky-haired species of goat. Only a few of 

 these animals are found in Canada, but there 

 are thousands in the United States. The soft, 

 silvery-white hair, which hangs down in curly 

 locks eight or nine inches long, is called mo- 

 hair, and is used in various manufactures. 

 (See MOHAIR.) The pelts are made into rugs, 

 robes, muffs, capes, etc. Angora skins are 

 worth from thirty-five cents to $3.50. The flesh 

 is delicate and nutritious. These goats are won- 

 derful grazers, clearing away weeds and brush- 

 wood. These and other species of goats furnish 

 milk richer than cow's milk, and the inner 

 hide is used for shoes, gloves, music rolls, book 

 bindings, etc. 



Goat Industry. Though the value of goats 

 is recognized the industry in the United States 

 has not yet grown large; particularly is there 

 a shortage in goatskin for manufacturing pur- 

 poses. In 1910 there were 2,798,160 goats of 

 various kinds in the United States, valued at 

 $5,964,812, Kansas City being the leading goat 

 market. Still over $30,000,000 worth of goat- 

 skins are being imported into the United States 

 each year from the British Indies, Southern 

 Russia, South America and Mexico. The finest 

 goatskins in the world are imported from the 

 region of the Black and Caspian seas. Efforts 

 are being made to encourage the goat industry 

 in the United States, and to make it a paying 

 one. See CASHMERE GOAT; ROCKY MOUNTAIN 

 WHITE GOAT. M.S. 



Consult Robertson's The Case for the Goat. 



GO AT 'SUCKER, a common name for a 

 family of moth-catching, owl-like birds, the 

 nightjars. The first name was given from 'an 

 incorrect ancient belief that these birds milk 

 goats. The idea probably arose because they 



GOATSUCKER, OR NIGHTJAR 



look for insects at twilight, searching near the 

 ground and in pastures where domestic animals 

 graze. The more appropriate name, nightjar, 

 was derived from their night-flying habits and 

 jarring cries. 



Nightjars vary in size from eight to fifteen 

 inches, and the soft plumage is in all shades 

 of gray and brown, mottled with white. Mem- 

 bers of this family are found almost every- 

 where. Representatives in America are the 

 nighthawks and whip-poor-wills (which see). 

 Other general characteristics of the goatsucker 

 family are the short, thick head with large, 

 gaping mouth and very small bill with bristles 

 at the base. They catch their food while flying 

 on wings which, considering the size of the 

 bird, are long and powerful. They sleep 

 throughout the brightest hours of the day, 

 resting lengthwise on their perch or on their 

 nest on the ground. 



GOBI, go' be, DESERT OF, a treeless, dreary 

 plateau rising 3,000 feet above sea level, in 

 the central part of Mongolia, in Northern 

 China. It has only a few permanent settle- 

 ments, all located in the northern part of its 

 territory. Over its sandy waste, which covers 

 nearly 300,000 square miles, an area twice as 

 large as Montana, are scattered many rocky 

 table-lands and mountains, but in the summer 

 a scanty rainfall makes enough pasturage for 

 the flocks and herds of the wandering tribes. 

 During the rest of the year the climate is 

 very severe, especially along the borders. A 

 number of caravan routes lead across this 

 region from China proper to Siberia, and these 

 are used largely by nomadic tribes. Several 

 explorers, especially Przhevalski and Sven 

 Hedin, have obtained much valuable informa- 

 tion during the past fifty years concerning the 

 Gobi. See DESERT; NOMAD LIFE; for location 

 on map, see ASIA. 



GOD, a name given, in its broadest sense, 

 to any superhuman being who directs the 

 activities of various races of the world. As 

 used by Christian peoples, the term applies to 

 only one Being, and the plural form gods is 

 an impossibility. ' This article will consider 

 both uses of the term. 



The Heathen Gods. Every people, however 

 barbarous, however little removed, apparently, 

 from the brutes, seems to have some sort of 

 an inborn idea of a being more powerful than 

 man. Strangely enough or so it seems to 

 those acquainted with the Christian idea of 

 God this more powerful being is not neces- 

 sarily better than man. The Greeks were a 

 beauty-loving, virtue-loving people, and the 

 myths they wove about their gods were in 

 many instances exquisite, but fully as often 

 these myths showed the gods to be cruel, venge- 

 ful or immoral (see MYTHOLOGY). Such tales 



