166 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



Persian poetical enthusiasm. The very name Gazelle, by 

 which several of the genus are designated, is derived from 

 the Arabic Gazal JUc signifying this animal, or a young 

 fawn, is also an image of peculiarly tender and delicate 

 women ; it is likewise applied to a species of stanza of 

 highly polished and tender versification : the root, however, 

 seems taken from the Hindu Sasi or Sasin, the name of 

 the Common Antelope. It appears that in the beautiful re- 

 gions of the East, beyond the river Indus, these animals 

 have attracted the notice of mankind in an extraordinary 

 degree, even in the primitive ages of that land of early civi- 

 lization ; for we find them in the oldest mythologies, and 

 among the symbols of its astronomy. The Sasin figures in 

 the Rasi Chakra or Hindu Zodiack, instead of Capricorn ; 

 the goddess Chandra or the Moon rides upon an Antelope, 

 and Mahadeva Pancha Mukti holds one of these animals by 

 the legs. In the Institutes of Menu, certainly more ancient 

 than the Macedonian invasion, we find that under certain 

 circumstances, the Bramins were not only allowed but 

 directed to be fed on the flesh of the Ena or Spotted Ante- 

 lope, and the Ruru which appears to be the Leucoryx *. 

 From these causes the whole genus is held sacred to Chan- 

 dra or the Moon : but it may be surmised, that this conse- 

 cration was originally confined to some species, perhaps 

 still undescribed, whose horns exhibited a sort of resem- 

 blance to a crescent. 



We begin by the group which, in the form of the horns, 

 the short tail, and disk on the buttocks, approaches nearest 

 to the Deer. 



* See the Institutes of Menu, chap. iii. v. 269. They were to be 

 fed six months with the flesh of Kids, seven with Spotted Deer, 

 eight with that of the Spotted Antelope (A CervicapraJ , called Ena, 

 and nine with that of the Ruru : the Risia or Antelope Picta of 

 authors, is not considered as belonging to this series in the Sans- 

 crit writers. 



