182 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



north, beyond the limits of the colony. This description 

 would have induced us to affix the name of Baas for the 

 specific designation of the Takhaitze, if it were not more 

 likely to be referrible to the Brindled Gnoo. 



The Orygine Group. 



Although the name of Oryx may be derived from the 

 same early Caucasian root, which has left its traces in 

 the Sanscrit "and Teutonic Urox, it seems, nevertheless, to be 

 legitimate Greek, implying majesty or beauty, and to have 

 been celebrated among the ancients, without being alto- 

 gether well understood. Aristotle was informed that the 

 animal had cloven feet, and only one horn. Pliny adds 

 that the hair is reversed. Oppian represents the Oryx as 

 large and fierce, with white hair and black cheeks, having 

 long horns, very sharp, and hard as iron : with these, he is 

 said to contend successfully against the most powerful ani- 

 mals. Strabo and Lampridius observe, that offensive wea- 

 pons are made of them in Africa, which will pierce even 

 the skin of an elephant ; and Herodotus, that they served 

 to make musical instruments. In all these accounts, some 

 species of Oryx is always evident : even in the Aristotelian 

 story, we find this animal is intended by the subsequent 

 repetitions of the same assertion to the present time. As 

 we have already seen, Bochart notices an unicorn by the 

 name of Pantalops, which is only the word Antholops dis- 

 figured. There exists a rare English print belonging to or 

 intended for some work we have not been able to trace, 

 which represents an unicorn, in every respect resembling 

 the Oryx, excepting the horn. The pretended Unicorn of 

 Bhootan, we shall find to be referrible to the group we 

 have under consideration, and the notice of Mr. Ruppel 

 appears again to refer to Oryx. In the letter of that ad- 

 venturous zoologist, written from Ambukol in Central 

 Africa, he describes an animal from the account of a slave 



