ORDER RUMINANTIA. 231 



they soon strike against them, and are disabled. Accord- 

 ing to Du Halde they are known in China by the name of 

 Hoang, or Wang Yang (Yellow Goat). 



The Common Antelope. (A. Cervicapra.) We now come 

 to the most celebrated species in the whole genus, not less 

 remarkable for beauty of form and elegant distribution of 

 colours, than for the interest it has excited from the re- 

 motest antiquity among the nations and philosophic legis- 

 lators of the regions where it resides. They have raised 

 the Common Antelope among the constellations, harnessed 

 it to the chariot of the moon, and represented it as the 

 quarry of the gods. In the opinion of Hindoos the animal 

 is sacred to Chandra, female devotees and minstrels lead it, 

 domesticated, by the harmony of their instruments, or the 

 power of their prayers, and holy Bramins are directed to 

 feed upon their flesh, under certain circumstances pre- 

 scribed by the Institutes of Menu *. 



The Common or Indian Antelope is styled the Spotted or 

 Ena in the ancient language, and Sasin or Sasi by the 

 modern Hindoos. It is smaller than the Fallow-deer, with 

 a lengthened head, ending in a rather full and round mouth, 

 surmounted by a small moist muzzle ; the eyes are full, 

 soft, and dark-hazei, with a well-defined suborbital opening 

 beneath; the ears middle-sized and pointed ; and the horns, 

 placed a little above the orbits, are from fifteen to twenty 

 inches long, which, as the animal advances in age, become 

 more and more spiral, though when younger they have 

 little more than three flexures. They begin to appear on 

 the young males at the age of seven months, shewing the 

 second year one slight bend, increasing the spiral curve 

 when they have two, which takes place at three years of 

 age, and twelve or thirteen rings are numbered on their 



* The Antelope, as we have before stated, is sacred to Chandra 

 or the Moon, is depicted in the Indian Zodiack instead of Capri- 

 corn, and placed in the hands of Mahadeva Pancha Mukti. 



