QUADRUPEDS, 
quite certain that its frontal bone must have been 
divided longitudinally into two, and that it could 
not possibly, as is very justly remarked by Camper, 
have had a horn placed upon the suture. 
" It may be asked, however, What two-horned 
animal could have given an idea of the orz/^r, in 
the forms in which it has been transmitted down 
to us, even independent of the notion of a single 
horn ? To this I answer, as already done by Pal- 
las, that it was the straight-horned antilope oryx 
of Gmelin, improperly named pasan by BufFon. 
This animal inhabits the deserts of Africa, and 
must frequently approach the confines of Egypt, 
and appears to be that which is represented in the 
hieroglyphics. It equals the ox in height, while 
the shape of its body approaches to that of a stag, 
and its straight horns present exceedingly formi- 
dable weapons, hard almost as iron, and sharp- 
pointed like javelins. Its hair is whitish ; it has 
black spots and streaks on its face, and the hair 
on its back points forwards. Such is the descrip- 
tion given by naturalists j and the fables of the 
Egyptian priests, which have occasioned the in- 
sertion of its figure among their hieroglyphics, do 
not require to have been founded in nature. Sup- 
posing that an individual of this species may have 
been seen which had lost one of its horns by some 
accident, it may have been taken as a representa- 
tive of the entire race, and erroneously adopted 
2g 
