$70 
COMMON GOAT. 
keep a he-goat in their studs or stables, for this 
very purpose. 
But the skin is perhaps the most valuable part 
of the goat. It is prepared for a great many pur- 
poses, either with or without the hair. It covers 
the soldier's knapsack, and is manufactured into 
bolsters and hangings. When dressed without 
the hair, the skin of the kid especially becomes 
a soft and pliant species of leather, excellent for 
gloves, and fit to be made into stockings, bed- 
ticks, sheets, and shirts. It takes a dye better than 
any other skin ; is susceptible of the richest co- 
lours : and when it used formerlv to be flowered 
and ornamented with gold and silver, became an 
elegant and superb article of furniture. The hair, 
separated from the hide, is a valuable material to 
the wig-maker. The whitest wigs are made of 
goats' hair. That on the haunches is brighter, 
longer, and thicker, than that on the other parts of 
the body. A skin well furnished with hair of a 
good quality, is frequently sold at no less a price 
than a guinea. Pliny relates, that in Cilicia, and 
either in Syria or in the country adjacent to the 
African Syrtes, (for there are differ ent readings of 
tips passage,) the hair of the goat used anciently 
to be shorn in the same manner as in other places 
the fle'ece of the sheep. 
The tallow of this animal is also an article of con- 
siderable value. It is much purer, and approaches 
in its nature much nearer to butter than tile tallow 
of either the ox or the sheep. Where goats are 
numerous, it is often used by the poorer people 
in the preparation of food. Candles made of it 
are far superior in whiteness to those made of 
other tallow, and burn better. 
