GOATS IN CITIES 15 



can or cart, the Syrian dairyman leads his obedient flock 

 of goats down the street, and after receiving an affirma- 

 tive answer to the Syriac equivalent for the call of 

 * Milk-ho ?' selects his goat, and milks it in the street 

 before the customer's door. If the purchaser fancies 

 milk from one animal more than another he has only 

 to mention his preference. 



The Cashmere shawls made of the finest goat's 

 hair are not manufactured from that of Cashmere 

 goats pastured, as is often believed, near the rose- 

 gardens * where the nightingales sing by the calm 

 Bendemeer.' The precious wool is the under-fur 

 of a breed kept in Thibet, and by the Khirgiz in 

 Central Asia, from the slopes of the Alatau Mountains 

 to the bend of the Ural north of the Caspian. Only a 

 small quantity, averaging three ounces, of the precious 

 wool is produced yearly by each goat, and the material 

 is collected by middlemen, taken to Cashmere and sold 

 in the bazaars, where it is purchased by the makers of 

 the shawls. M. Jaubert in 1819 imported some of 

 these animals into France, and after crossing them with 

 the Angora breed, obtained an average of thirty ounces 

 instead of three ounces of equally fine wool. Recent 

 experiments in acclimatizing the vicuna in France have 

 met with considerable success, and both the Cashmere 

 and Angora goats were found to do well on the Swiss 

 Alps, though as they gave no milk they were not 



