266 The Poets Beasts. 



"the milky one," or in contemporary folk-lore as the self- 

 sacrificing she-goat that gives up her life for her less in- 

 telligent companions. "Billy" maybe overbearing, hot- 

 tempered, and unprincipled ; but "Nanny" is meek and mild 

 and benign. Though " the goat of El-Akhfash " has passed 

 into Arab proverb as a fool, the adult animal in fable is in- 

 variably discreet The " wanton kidling " is a trifle imbecile. 

 Wolves and other villainous personages are the cause of 

 " kiddie's" succumbing to the most obvious frauds, as in 

 the Shepherd's Calendar — and thereafter punctually in all 

 poets. 



" All save a bell, which he left behinde 

 In the basket for the kidde to finde ; 

 Which, when the kidde stouped downe to catch, 

 He popt him in, and his basket did latch ; 

 Ne stayed he once the dore to make fast, 

 But ranne away with him in all hast." 



That goats carry with them an ungracious aroma — are, 

 in fact, the Bassas of the flock — is a circumstance most 

 reproachfully urged against them ; yet, though, as Sir 

 Thomas Browne would sa\', " I concede many questionable 

 points, and dispute not the verity of sundry opinions which 

 are of affinity thereto," I know not how to admit that their 

 odour is a diabolical one. For Chaucer is not the only 

 poet who thus unsavourily associates goats and devils — 



" And evermore wherever that they gon. 

 Men may hem kennen by smell of brimslon, 

 For all the world they stinken as a gote." 



Now, Sancho Panza, who, having been a goatherd in his 

 youth, was an authority on the subject, speaks endearingly 

 (as we have seen) of certain goats as "little violets," while 

 in another place he refers si)ecifically to the demoniacal 

 odour as something very different. "Truly, sir," quoth 

 Sancho, " I have already touched them, and this same 



