ANTELOPE (An'tt-lilp), (I I vach'muri.
Although this word does not oreur in our version of the Scriptures, yet there c.ut be III) doubt that in the Hebrew text several ruminants to which it is applicable are indicated under different denominations, In scientific nomenclature, the term antelope, at first applied to a single species, has gradually become generical, and is now the designation of a tribe, or even of a family of genera, con taining a great many species According to pres ent usage, it embraces some species that are of considerable size, so as to be invariably regarded by the natives as having some affinity to cattle, and others delicate and rather small, that may be compared with young deer, to which, in truth, they bear a general resemblance.
The antelopes, considered as a family, may be distinguished from all others by their uniting the light and graceful forms of deer with the perma to the pastern joints black, and the lower half of the thighs usually, and often the lower flank, bright rufous; hence the epithet hommar (rubere, to redden).
II "ild Ox (Deut. xiv :5; Is. li:2o), (Oryx tao, the Nubian oryx, Ham. Smith), is either a species or a distinct variety of leucoryx.
Oryx addax may have been known to the Hebrews by the name of dishon. It is three feet seven inches at the shoulder, has the same structure as the others, but is somewhat higher at the croup; it has a coarse beard under the gullet, a black scalp and forehead, divided from the eyes and nose by a white bar on each side, passing along the brows and down the face to the cheek, and connected with one another between the eyes. The general color of the fur is white, with the head, neck and shoulders more or less liver-color gray; but what distinguishes it most from the others are the horns, which in structure and length assimilate with those of the other spe cies, but in shape assume the spiral flexures of the Indian antelope. The animal is figured on Egyptian monuments, and may be the pygarg or dishon, uniting the characters of a white rump neat horns of goats, excepting that in general their horns are round, annulated, and marked with stria', slender, and variously inflected, according to the subdivision or group they belong to. They have usually large, soft, and beautiful eyes, tear pits beneath them, and round tails. They are
often provided with hair tufts or brushes to pro tect the knees from injury.
Antelopes are elegantly formed, active, restless, timid, shy, and astonishingly swift, running with vast bounds, and springing or leaping with sur prising elasticity ; they frequently stop for a mo ment in the midst of their course to gaze at their pursuers, and then resume their flight.
There are no less than 29 species of antelopes in all. Among the first of the subordinate groups is the subgenus oryx, consisting of five or six species, whereof we have to notice the following: The Lcucoryx, as the name implies, is white, having a black mark down the nose, black cheeks and jowl, the legs from the elbow and heel with strepsicerotine horns, and even those which Dr. Shaw ascribes to his `lid»ice.' We have now to notice the second group of antilopidx, classified under the subgenus gazella, whereof at least one species, but more probably four or five, still inhabit the uplands and deserts of Egypt, Arabia, and the eastern and southern borders of Palestine. They are named in the Greek dorcas, and in the Hebrew sebi, both terms being applicable to the whole group ; and the Hebrew name is by distant nations now used for allied species which are unknown in Arabia and Syria. The biblical species clearly included in the section gazella are Autilope dorcas, Linn., Ariel or A. Arabica, Licht.; more remotely, A. kevella, A. corinna, auctor.; and for Eastern Arabia, A. cora, Ham. Smith; while A. subgut turosa, Guldenst, may be claimed for the north eastern countries, where the species exists both in Asia Minor and Armenia, and therefore on the borders of Syria.
One or other of these, according to geographical localities, occurs in the Authorized Version under the name of roc. in Deut. xii:t5, 22 ; xiv :5 ; NV:22; t Kings iv :23; t Citron. xii :8; 2 Sam. ii :18; Prov. Vi :5; Is. xiii:14; or dorcas, Eccles. xxvii :20.
The Jachmur, yoch-mur. ( t Kings iv:23) is not, as in our Authorized Version, 'the fallow deer,' but the Oryx leucoryx of the moderns, the true oryx of the ancients, and of Niebuhr, who quotes R. Jona, and points out the Chaldaic gat-tonna,. and Persian kuickohi (probably a mistake for moskondos), and describes it as a great goat. The eastern Arabs still use the name