The ninth antelope is an animal which, according to M. Adanson, is called nangueur, or nanguer ([fig. 155.]) at Senegal. It is three feet and a half long, and two feet and a half high; it is of the colour of the roe-buck, yellow on the upper part of the body, white under the belly and inside of the thighs, with a spot of the same colour under the neck. Its horns are permanent like those of the other antelopes, and are about six or seven inches in length; they are black and round, but what is singular, they bend forwards, at the points nearly in the same manner as those of the chamois goats bend backwards. These nauguers are very beautiful animals, and very easy to tame. All these characters, and principally that of the horns bending forward, induces me to think, that the nanguer may possibly be the dama, or fallow-deer, of the ancients. “Cornua rupicapris in dorsum adunca, damis in adversum,” says Pliny. As these are the only animals who have their horns bent in this manner, we may presume that the nanguer of Africa, is the dama of the ancients; especially, as Pliny says in another place, that the dama is only to be found in Africa. In short, by the testimonies of other ancient authors, we find, that the dama was a timid and peaceable animal, who had no other resource for his safety than in the swiftness of his running. The animal which Caius has given the figure and description of, under the name dama Plinii being found, according to that author’s own testimony in the north of Great Britain and in Spain, cannot possibly be the dama mentioned by Pliny, because he says, it was only to be found in Africa. Besides, this animal, which Caius has described, is furnished with beard like a goat, and not one of the ancients has spoken of the dama as having a beard. I am inclined therefore to believe that this dama of Caius is only a goat, whose horns being a little bent at their extremities, like those of the common gazelle, made him imagine it to be the dama of the ancients. Besides this character of the horns being bent forwards, which is the most certain index of the dama, is not properly marked in any other animal except the nanguer of Africa. From the remarks of M. Adanson, it appears, there are three varieties of these nanguers, which only differ in the colour of the hair, but all their horns bend forwards in a greater or lesser degree.
The tenth gazelle is a very common animal in Barbary and Mauritania, and which the English call antelope, a name we shall likewise adopt. This animal is of the size of a roe-buck, and greatly resembles the gazelle and the kevel, yet it differs from them in so many particulars, that it may be looked upon as a different species. The antelope has deeper eye-pits than the gazelle; its horns are near fourteen inches long almost touching each other at the bottom, yet their points are fifteen or sixteen inches asunder. They are surrounded with rings and semi-rings like the gazelle and kevel, but not so distinguishable; but what particularly discriminates the antelope, is its horns having a double flexion, which gives them the appearance of an antique lyre. The antelope, like other gazelles, is yellow on the back, and white under the belly; but these two colours are not separated by the black streak which is to be found in all the rest of the gazelle kind.
There seems to be different races of the antelope as there are in the other gazelles. 1. In the royal cabinet is a horn, which must be attributed to a much larger antelope than that we have been speaking of; it is called lidmee, a name, which according to Dr. Shaw, the Africans give to the antelopes. 2. In the cabinet of the Marquis de Marigny is a kind of an offensive weapon composed of two sharp-pointed horns about the length of a foot and a half which, by their double flexion, seem to belong to a much smaller antelope than any of the rest. It must be very common in the Indies, as their Faquirs, and other priests, carry this sort of weapon as a mark of dignity. We shall call it the Indian antelope, from its having the appearance of being only a simple variety of the African species.
By this enumeration of the gazelles, or antelopes, we find there are twelve species, or distinct varieties: viz. 1. The common gazelle; 2. The kevel; 3. The corine; 4. The tzeiran; 5. The koba, or great brown cow; 6. The kob, or small brown cow; 7. The algazel, or antelope of Egypt; 8. The pasan, or pretended bezoar; 9. The nanguer, or dama of the ancients; 10. The antelope; 11. The lidmée; and, 12. The Indian antelope. After having carefully compared them, we are induced to conclude that the common gazelle, kevel, and corine, are only three varieties of one species: 2. That the tzeiran, koba, and kob, are varieties of another: 3. That the algazel and the pasan are probably only two varieties of the same species; and that the name bezoar-gazelle, which has been given to the pasan, is no distinctive character; for we think ourselves able to prove, that the Oriental bezoar does not come from the pasan alone, but from all the gazelles and goats which live in the mountains of Asia: 4. That the nanguers, whose horns are bent forwards, and of which there are two or three varieties, have been indicated by the ancients under the name of the dama: 5. That the antelopes, which are three or four in number, and differ from all others by the double flexion of their horns, were also known to the ancients by the names of strepsiceros, and addax. All these animals are to be found in Asia and Africa that is in the old continent, and to these five principal species, which contain twelve very distinct varieties, we shall not add two or three other kinds, of America, to which the indefinite name of gazelle has also been given, although they are different from all those we have already noticed; as it would only increase the confusion, which is already too great. We shall give the history of these American animals, under their real names of Mezame, Temamaçame, &c. and shall here speak only of those animals of this species which are found in Africa and Asia: we shall also refer to the following articles, several other animals of Africa and Asia, which have been considered as antelopes or goats, though they appear to be an intermediate species; such as the bubalus, or Barbary cow, the condoma, the guib, the grimm, &c. without including the chevrotains, which greatly resemble the small goats or antelopes, but of which we shall speak in a separate article.
It is now easy to perceive how difficult it was to arrange all these animals, which amount to thirty, ten goats, twelve or thirteen antelopes, three or four of the bubalus, and as many chevrotains, all different from each other; many of them were unknown, the others confusedly mentioned by naturalists, and confounded one for another by travellers. This is the third time that I have written their history, and I must say, that the trouble much exceeded the produce, though I have done as much as possible with the materials and knowledge I was able to acquire.
By comparing the remarks which have been made by ancient and modern authors, with the knowledge we have acquired by experience, we find, 1. That the dorcas of Aristotle is not the gazelle but the roe-buck; notwithstanding that this name has been used by Ælian, not only to denote wild goats in general but particularly the Lybian or common gazelle. 2. That the strepsiceros of Pliny, or the addax of the Africans, is the antelope. 3. That the dama of Pliny is the nanguer of Africa, and not our fallow-deer, or any other European animal. 4. That the prox of Aristotle agrees with the zorkes of Ælian, and is the same with the platycerotas of the more modern Greeks, which name the Latins have adopted to denote the fallow-deer, “Animalium quorumdam cornua in palmas finxit natura; digitosque emisis exiis unde platycerotas vocant,” says Pliny. 5. That the pygargos of the Greeks is probably the gazelle of Egypt, or that of Persia; that is, the algazel or pasan. The word pygargos is only used by Aristotle to denote a bird, the white-tailed eagle; but Pliny employed it to denote a quadruped. The etymology of pygargus indicates, 1. An animal with white haunches, such as the roe-bucks or gazelles. 2. A timid animal; the ancients imagining that white thighs were an index of timidity, attributed the intrepidity of Hercules to his having black ones. But as almost every author, who speaks of the pygargus as a quadruped, mentions also the roe-buck; it is clear that the name can only be applied to some species of gazelle, which is different from the dorcas Lybica, or common gazelle, and from the strepsiceros, or antelope, which the same authors speak of. We therefore think, that the pygargus denotes the algazel or gazelle of Egypt, which must have been known to the Greeks as well as to the Hebrews; for we find the name of pygargus in the Septuagint version[V], among the number of animals whose flesh is deemed clean; the Jews, therefore, eat the pygargus, or that species of gazelle which is common in Egypt and the adjacent countries.
[V] Deuteronomy, chap. xiv.
Mr. Russel, in his History of Aleppo, says, that near that city there are two sorts of gazelles; the one called the mountain gazelle, which is the most beautiful, and whose hair on the neck and back is of a deep brown; the other, called the gazelle of the valley, which is neither so swift nor so well made as the first, and whose hair is also much paler. He adds, that these animals run so quick and so long that the swiftest dogs cannot catch them, without the assistance of a falcon; that in winter the gazelles are lean, but yet their flesh is of a good flavour; that in summer it abounds with fat, like our venison; and that those which are fed at home do not eat so well as the wild ones. From this testimony of Mr. Russel, and from that of M. Hasselquist, we may perceive that the gazelles of Aleppo are not the common gazelles, but those of Egypt, whose horns are straight, long, and black, and whose flesh is excellent eating. We find also from these testimonies, that they are half domestic animals; that they have been early tamed, and that consequently many different varieties or kinds have been formed among them, as well as in other domestic animals. These Aleppo gazelles are the same therefore as those we have called algazells, and are still more abundant in the Thebaid and Upper Egypt than the environs of Aleppo. They feed on aromatic herbs and the tender bark of young trees: they are commonly found in herds, or rather in families, consisting of five or six. Their cry resembles that of the goat. They are hunted not only with dogs, assisted by the falcon, but also with the ounce[W].
[W] See history of this animal, page 68, vol. VII.