Some Harmless Beasts. 171 



you will see the deer's head, Orion, glittering in sleepless 

 vigil 



Several other species of horned animals share in the 

 popularity of the British deer. Thus the "antelope"— a 

 vague creature enough in Campbell, Thomson, Moore, and 

 Shelley, who make it "snow-white with silver feet" and 

 "feeding on lilies" — is used as a type of timid innocence, 

 is called "sweet antelope," and affords similes of feminine 

 elegance and beauty — 



" Sister-antelopes 

 By one fair dam, snow-white, and swift as wind, 

 Nursed among lilies near a brimming stream." — Shelley. 



The grace of its neck makes a goddess envious ; the light- 

 ness of its step is the despair of nymphs ; its eyes — 



" The lady rising up with such an air 

 As Venus rose with from the wave, on them 

 Bent, like an antelope, a Paphian pair 

 Of eyes," 



and carries off Don Juan into delightful captivity. And no 

 wonder that antelopes should attract the poets, for they are 

 even swifter and more graceful than the deer. The peculiar 

 charm of their movements, their elegant impatience, so airy 

 and impulsive, are happily rendered, as in Moore's " fleet 

 and eager down the slope, like antelopes the bright nymphs 

 bound ; " and " down the slope, the silvery-footed antelope, 

 as gracefully and gaily springs," "with light sound;" or 

 Shelley's "antelope in the suspended impulse of its light- 

 ness ; " and " the wild antelope, that starts whene'er the dry 

 leaf rustles in the brake, suspends her timid steps to gaze." 

 The antelope is one of the constellations of the Indian 

 zodiac, sacred to Chandra, and the recognised symbol of 

 feminine grace. 



"Gazelle" is nearly synonymous with antelope. "Its 

 airy step and glorious eye " find equal favour with Byron, 



