THE GOAT. 125

touch the ground when the animal is feeding. These animals
are mentioned very early in Scripture—in the 15th chapter
of Genesis, and again in Exodus xxvi., where we find their
hair was used for making the curtains of the tabernacle :
“Thou shalt make curtains of goats’ hair, to be a cover-
ing upon the tabernacle, eleven curtains shalt thou make.”
Cloth made of goats’ hair forms the usual covering for the
tents of the Bedouin Arabs to this day, and it still continues
to be spun and wove at home by the women.

The “ wild goat,” akko of Deuteronomy xiv., is considered
to refer to the Capra Ibex (Plate VII.). This creature is
remarkable for its sweeping pair of horns, and an additional
coat of long shaggy hair, which forms its winter suit. Like
the goat, of which it is a species, it frequents the highest
ridges of the mountainous regions throughout Europe and
Asia, especially in the western parts of the latter. The
horns sometimes measure more than four feet in length, and
are knotted in a series of elevated rings. Its colour is
greyish-yellow above, a dull white below, with a black
stripe on the ridge of the back, and a brown band along
the flanks*.

“Tn 1 Samuel xxiv., Saul is said to ‘seek David and

* Pictorial Bible.