VI 



THE GOAT 



I. Ix Ancient Times 



The goat even more than the sheep is the 

 inhabitant of mountains. This animal, closely 

 related to the sheep, the antelope, and the 

 deer, likes warmth and dryness, and is most 

 at its ease in central Asia, the Himalayas, 



A DuTfn Goat 



and other mountains of the torrid zone, where, 

 in fact, we find its cradle, whence it has spread 

 through Europe, and, to some extent, through 

 America. It has prospered in the countries 

 bordering on the Mediterranean, — in northern 

 Africa and southern Europe, — and several 

 islands in that sea derive their name from it. 

 In Corsica the number of goats is estimated 



at ninety thousand. Malta gives its name to 

 a special race. But Greece and her islands 

 can boast of more than the rest of Europe, 

 possessing r)ne hundred and twenty for every 

 hundred of the population, while France, 

 Germanv, and Austria have only from four 

 to fi \' e , the United 

 States three, and Rus- 

 sia only two for every 

 hundred of their inhab- 

 itants. According to 

 the most trustworthy 

 calculations there are 

 about twenty millions of 

 goats in Europe. There 

 are nearly two millions 

 in the United States. 



The goat has been a 

 domestic animal from 

 time immemorial. Like 

 the sheep, it is easy to 

 tame. The Greeks and 

 the Romans, as well as 

 the Hebrews, knew the 

 goat as a domestic ani- 

 mal : witness the manner 

 in which Jacob deceived 

 his blind father. The 

 ancients raised these an- 

 imals for their milk, of 

 which they also made 

 cheese, and for their 

 meat, which is tooth- 

 some when the animal is 

 young, but uneatable when old on account of 

 its horrible odor. The skins were used to carry 

 drinking water by the migratory tribes of the 

 East ; the}' were also used for clothing, a practice 

 still cnntinued bv the Kirghiz of central Asia. 

 The skin of goats is used in our day for 

 the manufacture of kid for gloves, morocco, 

 shagreen, and other fine leathers, and also for 



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