“The wild Gazelle, on Judah’s hills,
Exulting yet may bound,
And drink from all the living rills
That gush on holy ground.
Its airy step and glorious eye
May glance in tameless transport by.”—Byron.
The Gazelle is the most elegant of antelopes. The Arabian poets have applied their choicest epithets to the beauty of this animal, and their descriptions have been adopted into our own poetry. Byron, in speaking of the dark eyes of an eastern beauty, says:
“Go look on those of the Gazelle.”
When the Persian describes his mistress, she is “an antelope in beauty,”—“his Gazelle employs all his soul;” and thus, in their figurative language, perfect beauty and Gazelle beauty are synonymous. These animals are spread, in innumerable herds, from Arabia to the river Senegal in Africa. Lions and panthers feed upon them; and man chases them with the dog, the cheetah, and the falcon. The height of the Gazelle is about twenty inches, the skin beautifully sleek, its body extremely graceful, its head unusually light, its ears flexible, its eyes most brilliant and glancing, and its legs as slender as a reed.
