THE BEDEN, OR WILD GOAT. (Capra Nubiana.) MANY of the ruminating animals are quite at home among rocks. In such places "The dingy kidling with its tinkling bell Leaps frolicsome, or old romantic goat Sits, his white beard slow moving."-COLERIDGe. * Few animals seem more at ease in almost inaccessible spots than sheep. In Shetland we have seen many of these gentle creatures dotting, with their white fleeces, the rocks of the far-famed Fitful Head, venturing, by dizzy paths, towards little patches of grass, which seemed to hang over the constantly boiling and roaring race of waters known as "the Roost of Sumburgh." The Rocky Mountains have at least two species of the race which find their food and shelter among precipices.* The Llama and Alpaca of the Chilian Andes are sure-footed among slippery rocks. The Chamois of the Alps ventures among places with so little foothold, that no creatures, unfurnished with wings, would seem to be there secure. The Aoudad of Morocco, a formidable goat with a long beard and shaggy mane, looks down defiant from his fastness, high in the Atlas Mountains. More than one species of antelope frequents the mountain-peaks of Southern Africa: one is called by the Boors the Steenbok (or Rock-goat), from its favourite abode. In Asia there are several of the goat and antelope families, such as the Goral and Thar, which live on the sweet herbage which * The "Big-horn," or Caprovis Canadensis, is one of these. they pick up among the precipices of the Himalaya, and to which they fly when pursued, "rushing with fearful precipitancy down the steep mountain." On the most precipitous parts of the loftiest Alps of Savoy and the Tyrol there is still to be found a ruminating animal which far surpasses the famed Chamois in size and in agility. This is the Ibex, or Bouquetin (Capra ibex), a quadruped which gets scarcer and scarcer every year, and which Dr. Girtanner in 1786 said, would soon, like the Mammoth, be numbered among the extinct mammalia.† At one time it was scattered over Switzerland, but in that country it is said that you can no longer find amid "Wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest" "Living flowers that skirt the eternal frost." The Ibex is described by travellers, as being able to ascend the most perpendicular precipices in a few leaps, provided it can find the slightest projection on which to rest its feet, and from which to take a fresh spring. Bochart has given a learned dissertation on the animals known to the Hebrews by the name of Iaal, or Iaalah, and which in our excellent version of the Bible is translated "wild goat." With his usual sagacity, he regarded this creature as the European Ibex; but in the year 1823 Messrs. Hemprich and Ehrenberg travelled to Mount Sinai, and with the aid of the Arabs, having procured ten *Hodgson, quoted in Dr. Gray's Catalogue of Mammalia in British Museum. † Observations sur la Physique, t. xxviii. pp. 225–227. 1 Samuel, xxiv. 2: "Saul . . . went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats." Psalm civ. 18: "The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats." Job, xxxix. 1: "Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth?" specimens of different ages, they have satisfactorily shown that the Asiatic species is distinct, and they have figured and described it under the name of Capra Sinaitica.* The Bedouin Arabs of Sinai call it Bedden, or Sehd, and the female Anse sehd. When journeying among the valleys which indent the mountains of Sinai, these travellers frequently saw herds varying in number from four to twenty. They were usually observed walking slowly over the highest and most rugged rocks, or quietly looking down on our German naturalists, as they threaded their way in the valley. Each of these herds was attended by a male, who could easily be distinguished by the length of his powerful horns. The Arabs told them --and the same story is related of the European Ibex-that if by accident the male falls from the top of a precipice, his horns so defend him, that he seldom meets with an accident; and, when hard pressed, and no other mode of escape remained, they have been known to jump headlong down a precipice of fifty feet and more with impunity. It requires great cunning on the part of the huntsman to surprise them. Approaching Mount St. Catherine, Burckhardt saw a small flock feeding among the rocks. One of his Arab attendants left the party, and by a circuitous road endeavoured to get to leeward, and near enough for a shot. The party sat down, so as not to alarm the wary creatures, and watched the success of the sportsman. He nearly reached a favourable spot behind a rock, when the herd suddenly took to flight, and disappeared. It was impossible for them to have seen the Arab, but they must have smelt him from a Symbolæ Physicæ. It was previously figured and described by F. Cuvier and Geoffrey St.-Hilaire under the name of Capra Nubiana, and it is so named in the British Museum. + Burckhardt," Travels in Syria," p. 405. change in the direction of the wind. They are most easily surprised early in the morning, when they feed, and it is at such times that the Arabs make long circuits to come on them. The leader, who is always on the watch, whenever he smells,* hears, or sees anything suspicious, makes a noise, a signal understood by his followers, who quickly make their escape. Like other game, they must decrease, for Burckhardt was informed, that fifty years before his journey, if a stranger visited the tent of an Arab, and the owner had no sheep to kill, he took his gun and went in search of But even in Burckhardt's time (1816) they were far one. from rare. M. Léon Laborde speaks of this fine inhabitant of the mountains,† as imparting, to the whole of the wild country which it tenants, a kind of animation, which well associates with its character. He watched one of his Arab followers, who had detected a herd of these creatures, pursue his game by making long and cunning détours, taking advantage of every rock to conceal his person, and of every cleft to approach nearer. He had taken off his clothes that he might not be impeded, and before starting gave directions to our traveller to rise and shout, if the mountain goats should try to escape on his side. He got near them, and shot one. In about half-an-hour it was cut up, and its liver and heart, roasted on some lighted brambles, served for their supper. It was a female with a kid. The latter he secured and tried to rear, but before he could find a goat to feed it, the poor little creature died. Their flesh is excellent venison. Their skins are converted into water-sacks; from their horns the Bedouins make rings, which they wear on their thumbs. On the * See Robinson's "Researches," i. 117. + His English translator has rendered this name "Gazelle." See "Journey through Arabia Petræa to Mount Sinai," p. 245. horns of one male as many as twenty tubercles have been counted; and Burckhardt mentions one pair which, measured along the curve, were as much as three feet and a half in length. These horns are carried by the Hebron merchants to Jerusalem, where they are worked into the handles of knives and daggers. On some of the curious bronze dishes discovered in the ruins of Nineveh are figures of the Ibex; and on a painting at Thebest is a vase very elegantly shaped, and with a lid, the ornament of which appears to be the head of this very species. We may add, that the word translated "roe" in Proverbs, chap. v. ver. 19, is in the Hebrew Iaalah; and evidently refers to the female of the animal we have been describing. The excellent annotator in Bagster's "Comprehensive Bible" well remarks, that in the verse cited Solomon compares a faithful wife, "first to the hind, or female deer, accompanying its mate in the forest and in the plains, amidst verdure and fertility; and, secondly, to the female Ibex, faithful to its associate on the mountain crags and amidst the dangers and hardships of rocks and precipices." The wild goat of Sinai has much shorter hair than the European Ibex. The legs, too, are more distinctly varied with blackish brown and white than in the species referred to. A. W. * Monumens de l'Egypte, by Champollion the Younger, Plate 191. |