640 



GNIDIA GO AT. 



is it until after it has taken its departure, satiated wit 

 gore, that the irritating action of the fluid, which i 

 instils into the wound, in order to cause the blood t 

 flow more freely, begins to be felt. We believ 

 vinegar applied to the wounded part to be a service 

 able remedy in assuaging the pain. 



GNIDIA (Linnaeus). A genus of ornamenta 

 shrubs from the Cape of Good Hope. Class am 

 order Octandria Monogyma, and natural order Thy 

 melees. Favourite green-house plants requiring mucl 

 care, as they are killed by either too much or too 

 little water. Cuttings of the young wood root best 

 Moor-earth is most suitable for them. 



GOAT (Capra). Agenus of ruminant mammalia 

 agreeing with the rest of the order in their genera 

 structure, but differing in so many particulars, am 

 corresponding so well with each other in the majority 

 of these, as to form a very distinct as well as a highly 

 interesting family. Of all animals which are rearet 

 in a state oT domestication, goats are the most pictu- 

 resque in their appearance, the most lively in their 

 manners, and the most hardy in their constitutions. 

 Of all four footed animals which have hard hoofs, 

 they are the surest footed ; and this agrees with their 

 native localities. They are the inhabitants of the 

 rocks, the tenants of the mountain-top, and the pre- 

 cipice, browsing on that vegetation which is inacces- 

 sible to any other race of ruminant mammalia. In 

 this respect some of the antelopes approach nearly to 

 them, as for instance the chamois, or rock antelope 

 of the Alps ; but fleet as that animal is, and great as 

 is its power of endurance, it is by no means equal to 

 the mountain goats. It is probably on account of the 

 vigorous constitution of those animals and their con- 

 sequent power of enduring the utmost severity of the 

 elements, that the ancients chose Capricorn, or the 

 goat, to represent that sign of the zodiac which the 

 sun occupies during the greatest depth and utmost 

 severity of the northern winter. 



Goats, in one or other of the species, are found in 

 almost every region of the world ; and they are very 

 obedient to climate in many of their appearances ; 

 but wherever they are found they are a lively, brave, 

 and healthy race. Their skins are remarkable for the 

 firmness of the texture, and the strength with which 

 the hair adheres to them. Generally that hair is long 

 and shaggy, but fine in its gloss, and remarkable for 

 preserving that gloss for a long time after the 

 death of the animal. In some peculiar climates 

 this hair is longer and of finer staple, as in the goat 

 of Angola, which country by the way is remarkable 

 for the length and beauty of the hair in some other of 

 its mammalia. In some other countries again, as for 

 instance on the northern slopes of the Himalaya 

 mountains, there are goats which are furnished with 

 two sorts of hair, one which is rough and bristly, cal- 

 culated for throwing off the heavy snows which fall 

 upon their upland pastures during the winter ; and 

 another which is shorter, of finer staple, and superior 

 perhaps to the covering of any animal for the pur- 

 poses of domestic economy. The animals which are 

 thus provided are the Cashmere goats, or rather the 

 goats which furnish the materials of the splendid 

 shawls known by the name of Cashmere ; for the goats 

 themselves are rarely met with on the south side of 

 the summits, and will not live in the valleys or plains 

 of the lower and warmer parts of India. The wool 

 of those goats, which forms, as it were, their inner 

 clothing, is not near so fine in the staple as the wool 



of many of the sheep ; but there ia a durability, am 

 also a facility of fixing permanent dyes upon ifj botl 

 of which render it of great value in an economica 

 point of view. And it may be said with truth thai 

 there is no tissue woven of any sort of material which 

 lasts so long, preserves its colour so well, or is so dif 

 ficult to be soiled, as a genuine shawl made of the 

 hair of the cashmere goat. On this account these 

 articles are esteemed the most valuable productions 

 of the oriental loom ; and as such they are favourite 

 presents among persons of distinction in that country, 

 the favourite abode of pomp and luxury ; and though 

 in point of beauty and design, and fineness of texture, 

 many productions of the looms of Europe are supe- 

 rior, yet in durability the very best of them fall short 

 of the genuine productions of India, if made of the 

 unmixed covering of the shawl goat of the Himalaya. 

 Goats, in all the varieties of their species, are un- 

 derstood to be remarkably healthy and wholesome 

 animals. Among their native rocks they browse upon 

 vegetables much too hard for almost any other of the 

 ruminant animals ; and it is understood that scarcely 

 any plant, be it what it may, is deleterious to a goat. 

 It is also said that they are not only proof against the 

 poison of reptiles, but that they feed with impunity 

 upon those possessing the most deadly venom. Thig 

 last is not very clearly made out, though it is by no 

 means unlikely ; because there are proverbs respect- 

 ing it in some languages. Thus for instance, in the 

 Highlands of Scotland, there is an old proverbial ex- 

 pression for gratuitous malignity, which states that it 

 s " like the goat eating the serpent." As goats are 

 more vigorous in their motions, and probably more 

 energetic in their whole character than probably any 

 other ruminant animals, the flesh of the full grown 

 ones, especially the males, is more tough, and it has 

 a peculiar flavour which many persons do not relish. 

 Its colour is remarkable for depth, indicating that 

 there is more blood in a goat than in almost any.other 

 animal ; and it is remarkable as a physiological 

 'act, that this general distribution of blood and con- 

 equent redness of appearance in the muscles of 

 inimals, is always in proportion to the degree of 

 :nergy with which those muscles are exerted, or ca- 

 >able of being exerted. When prepared as hams the 

 lesh of male goats, though exceedingly hard and pe- 

 culiar in its flavour, is much relished by some persons ; 

 and in any one who wishes to "make a day" in 

 climbing the rocks of a goat's country, there are few 

 locket companions more worthy of being recom- 

 mended than some slices near the knuckle end of a 

 goat's ham. At first indeed they look more like 

 lices of flint stones, or rather of mountain jasper, than 

 >f any thing else, and they require some vigour in 

 mastication. But, notwithstanding this, and notwith- 

 tanding their saltness and peculiar flavour, it is 

 stonishing how those slices of goat's ham stimulate 

 he salivary glands, moisten the parched throat, and 

 Hay thirst when one is breasting a steep mountain 

 nder the ardour of a mid-day sun. 



The flesh of female goats when in proper condition is 

 olerably good ; that of young kids forms a delicious 

 nd withal a savoury stew ; and when goats are kept 

 or the purposes of domestic economy, and the males 

 re mutilated as is done with oxen and sheep, they 

 et very fat, and their flesh is described as being 

 xcellent. The milk of goats is reckoned superior 

 n many respects to that of any other animal. It 

 ontains less oil, and on this account it sits lighter 



