26o The Poets Beasts. 



They jump over the sheep's backs to show their indifference 

 to orthodoxy. 



It is very seldom indeed, therefore, that the versatile, 

 generous-minded goat is found in Nature mixed up with the 

 dull but eminently respectable sheep. They are bored by 

 them. When the herdsman calls his charges together, the 

 sheep come along the valley in a compact body, taking the 

 beaten track. But the goats drop in promiscuously, singly, 

 or in twos or threes ; and most of them from above. 



" At feeding time the goats will be browsing in long lines 

 on the mountain sides, while the sheep are grazing in the 

 plain. At midday, when the flocks are gathered round the 

 wells to await the rolling away of the stone that guards the 

 water, the goats assemble on one side and the sheep on the 

 other. And at night, when they are all gathered into one fold 

 by one shepherd, they are still separated from each other." 



I confess this exclusiveness commends itself to me, and 

 I cannot find it in me to reproach goats for avoiding the 

 company of sheep. I can imagine no company less exhila- 

 rating or improving. Sheep are very woolly. 



This independence of character is finely shown in the 

 goat's demeanour. He bears himself in a stately way. 

 Read Proverbs — 



"There be three things which go well, yea, four are 

 comely in going. 



"A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth 

 not away from any. 



"A greyhound; an hc-goat also; and a king, against 

 whom there is no rising up." 



Indras, therefore, does not derogate from his dignity in 

 assuming the form of the "warrior he goat," nor Thor select 

 unbecoming steeds for his thunder-car when he yokes the 

 Butting Ones. 



Boldness is in the blood of it — an inheritance from its 

 great-horned ancestry of the Asiatic ranges. These are the 



