ORDER RUMINANTIA. 297 



tudes during their state of incipient civilization ; for these 

 were made by platting the ribbons into broader and warmer 

 pieces : the stripes almost universal in the south, were the 

 same plats sewed together. That goat's hair was the chief 

 ingredient among the Scandinavians, is proved by their 

 divinities being dressed in Geita Kurtlu. The Domestic 

 Goat in the north and west of the Old World, preceded sheep 

 for many ages, and predominated while the country was 

 chiefly covered with forests ; nor is there evidence of wool- 

 bearing animals crossing the Rhine, or the Upper Danube, 

 till towards the subversion of the Roman Empire. In 

 Spain, Southern Gaul, Italy, the shores of the Black Sea, 

 and Greece, the case is otherwise ; it may be conjectured 

 that the mythological romance of the Argonauts rests upon 

 the first importation of the breed of sheep into the land of 

 taste and genius. 



It would be difficult, if not impossible, to substantiate 

 the descent of the present domestic ^bjeeds of goats from 

 any one particular species still found in a state of nature, 

 if the probabilities were not that two, at least, if not all, 

 have served for that purpose, or have subsequently inter- 

 mixed with them ; for although the characters of the horns 

 are in this genus sufficiently diversified, they retain, never- 

 theless, a clear typical structure, even in the Jemlah species, 

 and the several races, however debased by domesticity, re- 

 sume more or less of the normal form, when restored to their 

 original independence under congenial circumstances. 



The genus Capra is distinguished from Antilope by the 

 osseous nucleus of the horns being partially porous or cel- 

 lular, communicating with the sinus of the frontals. The 

 direction of the horns is upwards, bending to the rear, 

 more or less angular, compressed, nodose, and transversely 

 wrinkled ; they are common to both sexes, but smaller, less 

 angular, and straighter in the females ; the line of the fore- 

 head and chaffron is rather convex ; the eye of a light brown 



Vol. IV. X 



