514 
VERTEERATA. 
pass along cKffs and ledges witli security from wliicli any otlier species would be turled to de- 
struction. If two of tliem meet on a ledge too narrow for tliera to pass, one kneels down and the 
other passes over liis back: ! All tlieir senses are exceedingly acute. They are intelligent, and 
maj^ be trained to the harness and taught to draw small vehicles. One of the delights of the 
Champs Elysees of Paris, to the young, is to ride for a few sous in a coach drawn by six goats. 
The sportive humor of these animals may be turned to account in the performance of various 
tricks. Every reader will remember the manner in which Alexander Selkirk amused hiinsclf by 
teaching his goats to dance, and occasionally taking a rigadoon with them himself. Their favor- 
ite food consists of the tops, tendrils, and flowers of aromatic shrubs. They feed safely on many 
plants which are poisonous to other ruminants. Hasselgren says that they feed on four hundred 
and forty-nine different kinds of plants ! They are fond of grape-vines, and so the ancients sacri- 
ficed them to Bacchiis, 
There has been great discussion as to the origin of the domestic goat. It is supposed by many 
learned men that the mountains of the earth must have been first inhabited by man, because they 
would first be dry and salubrious, while yet the valleys were filled with pestilent vapors, and 
•.therefore that the goat, being a mountain animal, must have been the first that was domesticated. 
■However this may be, it is certain that it figures largely in the early annals of mankind. The 
ILybian Jupiter had the horns of a ram, and Pan, the symbol of the productive energies of nature, 
was furnished with the attributes of a goat. The aegis of Jupiter and breastplate of Minerva were a 
simple goat-skin. Under the Jewish ritual the goat was an important animal, and was the symbol 
of atonement in the splendid ceremonial imposed by the Supreme Lawgiver. The formidable war- 
tunics of the Cimbri were the skins of goats, and these were the winter dress of the Roman axix- 
iliaries, as well in Britain as other northern provinces. Virgil, in his Georgics, directs the shep- 
herds to shear the long beards and hair of the Cinyphean goats for the service of the camp. Varro 
tells us that goats' hair was used for the dress of sailors and coverings of engines of war. 'The 
* The aboye engraving of a male Cashmere Goat is a portrait of one of two of these animals imported by Dr. J. B. 
Davis, -in J849, and afterward the property of R. Peters, Esq., of Atlanta, Georgia. 
