ORDER RUMINANTIA. 201 



most prominent to the front, but they are placed lower 

 down the frontals, nearly above the orbits, bending- more 

 outwards, and the tips turn in general again forward, 

 so as to assume the shape of an ancient lyre, when the 

 head is seen in front. This instrument may be regarded 

 as originally composed of the horns, and the frontals con- 

 nected with the celebral cavity of the skulls of Antelopes, 

 the strings being passed from a cross-bar at their tips to 

 some part of the molars in the upper maxilla, or to a 

 second bar thrust across the orbits : this primitive form 

 may be recognised in all the subsequent modifications of 

 the ancient lyre. 



The Gazellae have the bony cores of the horns solid ; they 

 are provided with a small lachrymary sinus, and with in- 

 guinal pores; most of the species have tufts on the knees, a 

 streak of a dark colour, set off by a lighter streak through the 

 eyes, and a dark band separating the darker teints of the 

 flanks from the white of the belly ; the inside of the ears is 

 mostly marked by several dark lines, occasioned by the 

 absence of hair, which is placed in rows, and of a white 

 colour; their eyes are prominent, dark, and soft, and it 

 is to this group in particular, that the complimentary allu- 

 sions of the oriental nations is confined ; the nose is ovine ; 

 the females have four or two mammse developed, and the 

 tail is short and furnished with a dark tuft. 



The larger species live in families or herds, but the 

 smaller are all gregarious, keeping at a distance from 

 wooded scenes, and residing principally on the barren 

 deserts ; these, however, they will quit in the night, to ap- 

 proach cultivation, and it is said, that in the desolated pro- 

 vinces of Abyssinia, they are fond of resorting to the 

 fields, where the result of former agriculture has left 

 abundance of grain growing wild, to seek cover and food, 

 and thus concealed, they are hunted with difficulty. The 

 Arabs and Bedowens of Africa and Western Asia, some- 



Vol . IV. P 



