9 
THE GOAT. 
HISTORY. 
in a remarkable religious ceremony. He was cultivated by tlie Hindoos from the earliest times; and he is figured on the 
sculptured monuments of the Egyptians, in their representations of mystic emblems, religious rites, and rural labours. By the 
earliest writers of Greece and Home he is continually referred to as yielding food and raiment ; and superstition connected him 
with the attributes and service of the Gods. He was dedicated to Jupiter Conservator, and sacrificed to Apollo, Diana, 
Bacchus, and the Paphian Venus, and his skin was the a?gis of the Goddess of Wisdom and Arms. His form was one of 
the attributes of Pan and the Satyrs, indicating the procreative power and rustic plenty. He was domesticated by the Lybians 
and the nations that stretched along the southern shores of the Mediterranean to the mountains of Atlas. He was cultivated by 
the Dacians, Sarmatians, and other nations, stretching from the Euxine into the wilds of Scythia. The Gauls and all the Celtic 
people of Europe appear to have been possessed of him in the domesticated state, using his hair and skin for garments, and his 
flesh and milk for food. Up to nearly the present day, the descendants of the pristine Celtic cultivated the Goat as one of the 
most useful of the animals given to them for food. Until a recent period, the Cambro-Britons and the Celtic people of the moun¬ 
tains of North Britain and Ireland, made greater use of the Goat than of the Sheep, and many of their appellations of families, 
places, mountains, rivers, and natural objects, are derived from the name which it bears in the Celtic tongue. In like manner the 
Scandinavian, the German, and other Teutonic nations, who had migrated in the first ages into Europe from the East, were pos¬ 
sessed of this gift of Providence, used his spoils for raiment and food, and coupled him with their wild superstitions. In short, 
the Goat appears to have been domesticated wherever the traces are found of that great Western Family of mankind, which, 
united by analogies of form, speech, and traditionary legends, has manifestly been derived from a common source and spread 
from a common centre. But the domesticated Goat was not confined to this division of the human race. It extended, beyond 
a question, all through the boundless regions of Eastern Asia to the ocean, comprehending tribes and nations, which, how¬ 
ever distinct from the western family of the human race in aspect, character, and speech, yet agreed with it in this, that the same 
domesticated animals ministered to the wants of both. But the insular continent of New Holland never possessed the Goat; for 
no trace of this, or any of the domesticated animals which had elsewhere followed the footsteps of man, was found at its dis¬ 
covery in this new world. Neither did it exist in any of the Polynesian Islands; and more strange and incomprehensible still, no 
vestige either of the domesticated Goat, or of his universal companions in the ancient world, the Sheep, the Ox, and the Horse, was 
found in the great American Continent, though peopled from end to end. 
The wild animals of the Caprine group which have been as yet discovered, and described by naturalists, are the following :— 
1. Capra Ibex, the Alpine Ibex. 
2. Capra Caucasica, the Caucasian Ibex. 
o. Capra Sibirica, the Siberian Ibex. 
4. Capra Nubiana, the Nubian or Abyssinian Ibex. 
5. Capra AEgagrus, the AEgagrus. 
6. Capra Jemlahica, the Jemlah Goat. 
7. Capra Jaliral, the Jahral Goat. 
The Alpine Ibex, the Bouquetin of the natives of the Alps, the Stein-bok, or Bock-Goat of the Germans, inhabits the Pyre¬ 
nees, the Alps of Switzerland, and the Tyrol, and probably other mountainous parts of Europe. He resembles the domestic Goat 
in his external form, but surpasses it in stature. He is protected by a coat of lank hair covering a down of delicate wool, which 
falls off in the warmer season. The colour of his fur is a greyish dusky brown, fawn coloured on the belly, and whitish on the 
inner part of the thighs, the inside of the ears, and a part of the tail. He has a beard, and a dark brown ridge of bristly hairs 
extending from the neck to the tail, which is short and naked underneath. He has large black horns, bending backwards, and 
turning outward towards the points. His hoofs are large, widely cleft, and sharp at the exterior edges, so that he can fix himself 
securely on the points and shelving sides of rocks. This conformation, joined to his surpassing power of balancing his body, and 
the great strength of his posterior limbs, enables him to make those amazing bounds from crag to crag, by which he is enabled to 
traverse the wilderness of rocks which he inhabits. He has been seen to spring up the steep side of a precipice of many feet, nay, 
striking the sides to give himself a fresh impetus, ascend to the perilous summit as if by a single effort; and, on the other hand, 
to precipitate himself from an eminence, alighting securely on the verge of the precipice. It is believed by the hunters of the 
Alps, that, when springing from a great height, he bends his head beneath his fore-legs, so as to break his fall by striking the 
rock with his horns. It is rather to be believed that his power of thus precipitating himself, is due to his nice power of balancing 
his weight, and the conformation of the horny covering of his feet. The female resembles the male, but her horns are shorter, 
more slender, and less curved. She has two mammae, forming an udder. She goes with young somewhat more than twenty 
weeks, and produces one, or often two, at a birth. She receives the male about the end of October, so that the kids may be 
