in the Scriptures on this head is that of the golden calf, which was cast by Aaron from the ear-rings of the people. The next refers to an event which occurred ages after, when Jeroboam, King of Israel, set up two idols in the form of a calf, the ore in Dan, the other in Beth.el. This almost incomprehensible degradation of human reason was, no doubt, originally derived from Egypt, where the Israelites during their sojourn had seen the image of a sacred calf carried in solemn pomp at the head of marching armies, such as may still be seen depicted in the procession of Rameses the Great. It was, moreover, a symbolic worship, representing the sun's first entrance into Taurus, or, according to Von Hammer, the mysterious anima mundi, the Nabathæan secret of secrets, or the beginning and return of everything. Baal was in a similar manner worshipped in the form of a beeve, and Moloch is said to have had a calf's or a steer's head. A similar divinity also belonged to the earliest Indian, Greek, and even Scandinavian mythologies.

Two varieties of cow are common to Syria: one of a large size, with a thin belly and long slender legs, like the figures of that animal often seen on antique intaglios; the other considerably smaller in bulk. There are but few black cattle to be seen near Aleppo, and they serve chiefly for the plough and water wheels, for the Jews and Muhammadans seldom or ever eat beef; yet it is tolerably good in quality at all seasons, but in highest perfection at the end of harvest. Veal ("adjel ") is seldom brought to

market.

Goats ("ketji" of the Turks, "koza" of the Slaves, "ketz or "kitz" of the Albanians, "capra" of the Dacians, and “aigida of the Greeks) are more common in Turkey than in Europe. They are of a small breed with long silky hair, and of a white, black, and yellowish-brown colour, said to have come from Egypt, which has very short horns. They are bred for their milk, their hair and skins, and are seldom eaten, except as kids.

Forming, as it did, a principal part of the Hebrew flocks, the goat is alluded to in Scripture under a variety of names, as "ez," "chasiph," "attud," etc., "aza" in Phoenician, "izza" in Chaldee, and "jidda" or "hedzjaz" in Arabic. The races either known to or kept by the Hebrew people were probably-1, The domestic Syrian long-eared breed; 2d, the Angora, or rather Anadoli breed, with very long hair; 3d, the Egyptian breed, with small spiral horns; and 4th, a breed from Upper Egypt, without horns and peculiar physiognomy, which is represented with great precision in the earlier Egyptian monuments. Two marked varieties of goats ("maz jidda," "tiz" or "tees,") are commonly met with in Syria in the present day, one differing very little from the British, the other not less remarkable for the length of its pendulous ears

than the sheep are for the enormous size of the tails. The black and yellow goat with long hair constitutes a picturesque object, as seen browsing among rocks and shrubs by the way-side. The great leathern bottles to hold water or wine are made from goat skins, and the Persian caps are mostly manufactured from the skin of kids.

Besides the domestic goats, Western Asia, more especially Taurus and Kurdistan, are tenanted by one or more wild species, all large and vigorous mountain animals, resembling the " ibex " or "bouquetin" of the Alps. Of these, Southern Syria, Arabia, Sinai, and the borders of the Red Sea, possess at least one species known to the Arabs by the name of "beden" or "beddan," and "taytal"-the Capra Sinaitica of Ehrenberg. Mr. Tristram met with this species of wild goat at En-gedi or Ain-jidda, which from its name "spring of the goat" (or as some have it "of the kid "), must have been its favourite habitat from the days of David. The same traveller saw numbers of them in the Wady Sudair, also near the Dead Sea. It is the "jaal" or "jal," plural “jalim,” of 1. Sam. xxiv. 2, Job xxxix. 1, Ps. civ. 18, and Prov. v. 19.

The "kaik" or "kaiji" of Taurus is de-cribed by the late Prof. Ed. Forbes ( Trav. in Lycia," p. 62) as i lentical with the ibex (Capra ibex) of Switzerland. The wild goat of Crete, he says, is also the same animal. In the month of October, 1841, Mr. Hoskyn met a herd of them on the summits of Massicytus, travelling in single file over the steep rocks at an elevation of nine thousand feet. They are equally numerous in Taurus and Kurdistan. This animal is known to the Turks as "dagh" or "tagh ketjisi," and to the Greeks as "platuni."

Sheep ("kouyun" of the Turks, "ovtza" of the Slavonians, "delle" of the Albanians, "ve" of the Dacians, “arni" of the Greeks, "runnam" in Arabic, with whom mutton is "lâhhem,') are the companions of man throughout Turkey, and constitute the chief meat diet of its inhabitants. They are almost always white, black sheep being rarely met with, and are of a rather small size. The Dacian sheep have spiral horns, and they, or rather their wool, constitutes one of the principal resources of the country. The most remarkable race is, however, the large-tailed sheep of Syria, and of which the most extraordinary accounts have been given by travellers. Leo Africanus, for example, speaks of a sheep's tail weighing eighty pounds; Symon Simion is satisfied with seventy; Buffon reduces the estimate to 20 or 30 pounds; and Russell, a competent authority, says from 15 to 20 pounds. According to the latter, the shepherds sometimes fix a thin piece of board on the under part of the tail to preserve it from injury, and to this board are also sometimes added small wheels; when.e we have the story

of the Oriental sheep, as related by Herodotus, Ludolphus, and others, being under the necessity of having carts to carry their tails.

The normal animal-the wild sheep-Ovis tragelaphus or barbatus-the "kebsch" of the Arabian and Egyptian mountains -from which all or the greater part of the western domestic races are assumed to be descended, still exists in the high regions of Taurus and of the Kurdish mountains, and is readily distinguished from two or three other wild species bordering on the same regions. Mr. Layard was, however, assured by the Chaldean Nestorian mountaineers, that there were no less than three distinct varieties. of wild sheep in their own little-explored Alpine recesses. What breeds the earliest shepherd tribes reared can now only be inferred from negative characters, yet they are sufficient to show that they were the same, or nearly so, as the common horned variety of Egypt, Western Asia, and continental Europe, in general white, but occasionally black, although there was on the Upper Nile a speckled race; and so early as the time of Aristotle the Arabians possessed a rufous breed, another with a very long tail, and, above all, the celebrated broad-tailed sheep.

A species of wild sheep dwells in Sinai and stony Arabia, as also in the Mokattan rocks, near Cairo, which is frequently represented and hieroglyphically named in the Egyptian monuments, and which is supposed to be the "zemer" of Deut. xiv. 5, rendered in our version"chamois;" in the Vulgate and Septuagint, “came. leopard;" and by Luther, supposed to be the elend or elk. It is called "kebsch" by the Arabs, is a fearless climber, exceeds in size the domestic sheep, and, instead of wool, is covered with close, fine, rufous hair. It is the "moufflon d' Afrique," and "moufflon a manchettes" of French writers. Lesson systematises it as Ovis tragelaphus, and makes the Ovis aries or Capra ammon of Linnæus the fountain-head of the domestic breeds. (Manuel de Mamma. logie.)

Considering that the domestication of wild animals is the first and essential step towards civilisation-that by taking away the necessity of hunting for daily existence it gives man time for other industrious pursuits, and at once removes him from the savage to a more or less intellectual condition,-European nations should feel that they owe a debt to Western Asia which they cannot repay too liberally in kind by doing their utmost to give life and energy to an effete government, and, above all, by protecting, educating, and helping poor and oppressed peoples. It is also remarkable, as compared with what was done in ancient times, how little has been accomplished in modern times with all our Zoological Societies and

Jardins d'Acclimatation to reclaim animals from a wild to a domestic state.

It may be inferred, from what is observed on the monuments of Egypt and Assyria, that the domestic races of the most anciently civilised people were the same as what are still found in the countries which they inhabited. We have cursorily noticed this in regard to Egypt in connection with the leading species; and on the Assyrian monuments are to be seen, in like manner, sheep, goats, oxen, horses, mules, and camels. The sheep are of the two known kinds, the common and the large broad-tailed variety. The goats have long spiral horns. The oxen are of the two kinds, one distinguished by horns curved towards the back of the head, the other having the horns projecting in front. It is possible, Mr. Layard suggests, that the distinction marks the buffalo and the common ox. The horses of the Assyrians, as far as can be judged from the sculptures, were well formed and apparently of noble blood. There is every reason to believe that the Assyrian horses were celebrated at a very early period, and that the Egyptians were chiefly indebted in remote times to the countries watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris for their horses. Both kinds of camels, the one-humped and the two-humped, are also faithfully pourtrayed in the Assyrian sculptures. The latter is on the obelisk, and evi dently came from afar. The dromedary was ridden in war by a people conquered by the Assyrians, probably the Arabs.

Among the wild animals represented in the same sculptures, we have the lion, the wild bull, the stag, the gazelle, the ibex, and the hare. On the monuments of Nineveh, the triumphs of the king over the lion are deemed no less worthy of record than his victories over his enemies. The lion of the sculptures is furnished with a long and bushy mane. The wild bull, from its frequent representation in the bas-reliefs, appears to have been considered scarcely less formidable and nobler game than the lion. The ibex, Mr. Layard says, was evidently a sacred animal, as it is carried by the winged figures, and is frequently introduced as an ornament. A stag, also, borne by a winged priest or divinity, was spotted like the fallow deer of our parks. A hunting-scene was represented on the walls of Khorsabad, in which hares figured as objects of the chase. We have also the representation of a jungle of high weeds, in which are seen a stag with its hinds, and a wild sow with its young. These animals are designed with great spirit.

The elephant, the rhinoceros, an Indian bull, the large Indian antelope, and four quadrumana appear, as before noticed, among the trophies of foreign conquest on the celebrated obelisk found at Kalah Shirkat.

The Rev. Wm. Houghton argues we have seen the presence of

the celebrated Macacus silenus, as well as of Presbyter entellus among the monkeys. The bear, he says, is the Ursus Syriacus; the hare, the Lepus Sinaiticus; the wild bull, probably Bos primigenius of the tertiary (quarternary ?) period; the wild goat, Capra Sinaitica; the wild sheep Capra or Caprovis orientalis; the wild deer, Cervus Mesopotamicus, and other species as C. elaphus and C. maral or Persian deer; the wild ass, Equus hemippus, and the elephant, Elephas Indicus. The rhinoceros is called on the black obelisk of Shalmaneser, "the ox from the river Saceya."