i8o SPORT IN EUROPE 



repeatedly referred to in Homer as being hunted by Ulysses and 

 his companions while roaming among the yEgean islands. It is known 

 as the pasang in Persia, its central home, whence it spread over the 

 whole of Asia Minor and some parts of the yEgean on the one side, 

 and as far as Afghanistan on the other. It is still met with in con- 

 siderable numbers on Mount Ida (the White Mountains, some 8,000 

 feet high), and the craggy fastnesses of Sphakia, in Crete. "^ In Cyprus 

 it is more rare, and, until lately, was in clanger of extinction.! It 

 was recently still to be seen on the rocks of the desert island of 

 Pelagos, just outside the Gulf of Volos. It had there defied the 

 old flint-locks and even the smooth bores ; but it has succumbed to 

 the long-range rifles which the progress of "civilisation" brought to 

 bear on the unfortunate beast. It now claims, as its last refuge in 

 Greece, the almost inaccessible little island of Anti-Milos, where the 

 ibex seems to have lived and propagated from time immemorial. 



* The animal existed, in ancient times, in such large numbers, and was so prominent 

 a natural feature of the country, that on the coins of Tylissos, situated on the spurs of Mount 

 Ida, a youth is represented holding in one hand the head of an ibex, and in the other a bow. 

 Their number must have been reduced only after the more general use of firearms by the 

 mountaineers ; for Belon, speaking of Mount Ida, says : " II y a grad nombre de Boucs 

 sauvages qu'on voit en troupeaux par la susdicte motagne." An interesting tradition attached 

 to the Cretan ibex, indicative of its marvellous vitality, namely, that when hit it immediately 

 sought the dittany of Mount Ida, on tasting which it was cured. The supposed medicinal 

 effect of this plant on the wounded ibex has been the subject, with ancient authors, of 

 numerous notices, which J. Meursius has collected {Creia, p. 97, iio-ii). Even Aristotle 

 {HisL Anim. ix. 6), refers to the popular belief, adding : "it appears that this (dittany) has the 

 power of throwing off from the body [of the wild goat] the effects of the spear." 



+ The Cyprus papers announce that an English sportsman passed the whole of last 

 autumn in the forests of Paphos in stalking the ibex (known locally as aypiva) ; and that 

 finally he bagged two specimens. I must here add that the British Administration of the 

 island have very wisely enforced close time for different kinds of game, and have adopted 

 stringent measures for the preservation of the ibex. 



