356 MAMMALIA-GAZELLE. 



black eagle, which is trained for that purpose. In summer they are almost 

 purblind, which is another cause of their destruction. This is occasioned 

 by the heat of the sun, and the splendor of the yellow deserts, where they 

 live in- a wild state. They seem to have no voice, — yet when brought up 

 tame, the young utter a short kind of bleating, like the sheep. 



THE GAZELLE. 1 



Of all the animals in the world, the gazelle has the most beautiful eye, 

 extremely brilliant, and yet so meek, that all the eastern poets compare the 

 eyes of their mistresses to those of this animal. The epithet of gazelle- 

 eyed is considered the highest compliment %at a lover can pay ; and, in- 

 deed, the Greeks themselves thought it no inelegant piece of flattery to 

 compare the eyes of a beautiful woman to those of a cow. 



The gazelle is, for the most part, more delicately and finely limbed than 

 even the roebuck ; its hair is as short, but finer and more glossy. The 

 hinder legs of some of the species are longer than the fore ones, as in the 

 hare, which gives it greater security in ascending and descending steep 

 places. In swiftness it equals, if not surpasses, the roe, running and 

 springing with vast bounds, and leaping with surprising elasticity. It fre- 

 quently stops for a moment in the midst of its course to gaze at its pursuers, 

 and then resumes its flight. The fieetness of the antelope, indeed, Avas pro- 

 verbial in the country it inhabited, even in the earliest times ; hence the 

 speed of Ashuel (2 Sam. ii. 18) is beautifully compared to the tzebi; and 

 the Gradites were said to be as swift as the antelopes (translated roes) upon 

 the mountains. 



Most of these aniuials are brown on the back and wliite under the belly, 

 with a black stripe separating those colors. Their tail is of various lengths, 

 but in all is covered with rather long hair ; and their ears are beautiful, well 

 placed, and terminating in a point. They all have cloven hoofs, like the 



' Antilope dorcas, Lin. 



