a term apparently corrupted from the epithet "antholops" (Gr. ἄνθος , ornament, and ῶψ, the eye), applied by the ancients to the gazelle from the proverbial beauty of its eyes. It is now the name (antilopus) of a division of the hollow-horned ruminants (genus Clavicorna), distinguished by certain peculiarities of the horn, the maxillary glands, and their slight figure (Brande's Dict. s.v.). Although the word does not occur in our version of the Scriptures, yet there can be no 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 generic, and is now the designation of a tribe, or even of a family of genera, containing a great many species. According to present 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. (See DEER).

The antelopes, considered as a family, may be distinguished from all others by their uniting the light and graceful forms of deer with the permanent horns of goats, excepting that in general their horns are round, annulated, and marked with strim, slender, and variously inflected, according to the subdivision or group to which they belong. They have usually large, soft, and beautiful eyes, tear-pits beneath them, and round tails. They are often provided with tufts of hair, or brushes, to protect the fore-knees from injury; they have inguinal pores; and are distinguished by very great powers of speed. Among the first of the subordinate groups is the subgenus oryx, consisting of five or six species, of which we have to notice at least three. The oryges are all about the size of the stag of Europe, or larger, with long, annulated, slender horns, rising in continuation of the plane of the forehead, slightly divergent, regularly but not greatly curved, entirely straight or lyrated, and from three feet to three feet eight inches in length. The head is rather clumsy, and more or less pied with black and white; the neck ewed, or arched, like that of the camel; the carcass bulky, compared with the legs, which are slender, firm, and capable of sustaining great action; the tail extends only to the heel, or hough; the hair on the shoulders and neck is invariably directed forward, thus, no doubt, keeping the animal cool in flight (see Penny Cyclopaedia, s.v.; Heuglin, Antilope Nordost-Africa's, Jen. 1864)

1. The yachmur' (יִחְמוּר, Deuteronomy 14:5; 1 Kings 4:23) is not, as in our Auth. Vers. "the fallow-deer" (Sept. δορκάς, Vulg. caprea), 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 jachmura, and describes it as a great goat. The Eastern Arabs still use the name jazmur. The leucoryx, as the name implies, is white, having a black mark down the nose, black cheeks and jowl, the legs, from the elbow and heel to the pastern joints, black, and the lower half of the thighs usually, and often the lower flank, bright rufous. The species now resides in pairs, in small families, and not unfrequently singly, on the mountain ranges along the sandy districts in the desert of Eastern Arabia, and on the banks of the Lower Euphrates; and may extend as far eastward as the west bank of the Indus, feeding on shrubby acacias, such as tortilis and Ehrenbergi. It was, no doubt, formerly, if not at present, found in Arabia Petraca, and in the eastern territories of the people of Israel; and from the circumstance of the generic name of wild cow or bull being common to this, as to other allied species, it was equally caught with nets and with the noose, and styled תאו (tao, to, theo). To this species may be referred more particularly some of the notions respecting unicorns, since, the forehead being narrow, and the horns long and slender, if one be broken off near the root, the remaining one stands so nearly on the medial line, that, taken in connection with its white-colored hair, to uncritical inspection, a single-horned animal might appear to be really present. By nature vicious and menacing, from what may be observed in the Egyptian paintings of the industry which imposture exercised, we may conclude that human art, even in early ages, may have contributed to make artificial unicorns; and most probably those seen by some of the earlier European travelers were of this kind. (See FALLOW DEER).

Bible Encyclopedias Antelope

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Bible Encyclopedias
Antelope