HISTORY. 17 



its own defence, putting itself in an attitude of defiance when 

 provoked by animals, however larger than itself. Its horns 

 turning outward at the points, it rises when it fights upon its 

 hinder legs, and throwing the weight of its body sidewise, 

 endeavours to maim its enemy by oblique strokes of the horns. 

 The Ram, on the other hand, whose horns are turned inward, 

 cannot use this method of attack, but rushes blindly upon his 

 enemy, endeavouring to stun him by the violence of the shock ; 

 while the Bull must lower his head to the very ground, in 

 order that he may receive his adversary on the points of his 

 horns. A dog that will despise a ram, and assail a bull, is 

 frequently cowed by the peculiar mode of attack and bold de- 

 meanour of the Goat. The domesticated Goat, like those of 

 the wild species, is capable of nicely balancing its body; and 

 its hoofs being widely cleft, moveable, and sharp at the exte- 

 rior edges, it possesses the faculty of fixing itself on the shelv- 

 ing edges of rocks, and of leaping from crag to crag. The 

 Arabs teach a curious feat to their Goats, which manifests the 

 wonderful power in the animals of balancing the body. A 

 cylinder of wood is placed on the ground, on the top of which 

 the Goat places all his feet ; another piece is then added, on 

 which the animal likewise mounts ; and then another^ and 

 another, until he stands at the summit of the column. When 

 two Goats meet on a narrow ledge of rock, or the top of a 

 high wall, the one crouches down, that the other may pass 

 over his body, The Goat, obeying his pristine instincts, de- 

 lights in high places, climbs to the tops of walls and houses, 

 and leaps over the barriers intended to confine him. When 

 kept in herds, individuals continually stray from the flock, 

 and station themselves on the heights. In feeding, the flock 

 gradually ascends to the higher grounds, preferring the 

 shrubs and aromatic plants of the mountains to the richer 

 herbage of the plains. Goats will eat of many bitter and 

 narcotic plants which other animals reject, nay, of some 

 which are deemed poisonous, as the hemlock and foxglove. 

 They gnaw the bark, and crop the tender shoots, of shrubs 



B 



