[Three Hundred Animals Contents]
AFTER the cow and the sheep, has been always reckoned, and mostly in ancient and patriarchal times, the most useful domestic animal; indeed the veneration they paid to this creature was supposed so well founded and so great, that they gave it a place in the Zodiac, under the name of Caper, and intrusted to the female the education of young Jupiter, as a proper nurse, under the appellation of Amalthea. What nectareous qualities must have they supposed to exist in her milk to feed with it the greatest and the best of their Gods? and to have fancied that a few drops falling on the sphere of heaven, were transformed into innumerable stars, called Galaxy, or Milky Way. The Goat’s hair is very different from the wool of the sheep, and made use of in various ways. the Goat is more nimble, more alert than the sheep, and delights in mountainous and rocky countries. She is sober and mild; the kid’s flesh was once reckoned a most delicate food, and even now feeds an immense quantity of people in the Alps, the Pyrenees and Wales. Her milk has saved many from a premature grave.