Pygarg

(דַּישׁוֹן. dishon, from dush, דּוּשׁ, to tread, or perhaps duts, דּוּצ, to leap; Sept. πύγαργος, Vulg. pygargus) occurs only (De 14:5) in the list of clean animals, being the name apparently of some species of antelope, though it is by no means easy to identify it. The Greek πύγαργος denotes an animal with a "white rump," and is used by Herodotus (iv. 192) as the name ot some Libyan deer or antelope. AElian (vii, 19) also mentions the πύγαργος, but gives no more than the name; comp. also Juvenal (Sct. 11:138). It is usual to identify the pygarg of the Greek and Latin writers with the addax of North Africa, Nubia, etc. (Addax nasomaculatus), known to the ancient Greeks under the salme title (Oryx addax, Lieht.), which has been recognised as a beast of chase in the old Egyptian sculptures. It is widely spread over Central Africa, extending to the borders of the Nile in Nubia, and is well known to the Arabs, who still distinguish it by its ancient name, with the familiar prefix of Abu, or father — Father Addas. The addax is a coarse and heavy antelope, three feet high at the withers, with a large clumsy head and stout legs. The horns exist in both sexes, are long, twisted outwards, covered with rings nearly to the points, which are sharp; the tail is long andl tufted. The head and neck are of a deep reddish brown color, with a band of white across the face; the forehead and throat are clothed with coarse black hair, and all the rest of the body and limbs is of a whitish gray hue. It is one of that group of antelopes in which we may clearly discern an approach to the bovine race. SEE OX.

Against this identification of the dishon with the addax, however, there are some considerable objections. In the first place, this antelope does not present at all the required characteristic implied by its name; and, in the second, there is much reason for believing, with Ruppell (Atlas zu der Reise im no'rd. Afrika, p. 21) and Hamilton Smith (Griffith's Cuvier's Anim. Kingdom, 4:193), that the addax is identical with the strepsiceros of Pliny (N. It. 11:37), which animal, it must be observed, the Roman naturalist distinguishes from the Pygargus (viii, 53). Indeed, we may regard the identity of the addax and Pliny's strepsiceros as established; for when this species was, after mamny years, at length rediscovered by Hemprich and Ruppell, it was found to be called by the Arabic name of akas or adas, the very name which Pliny gives as the local one of his strepsiceros. The pyqsargus, therefore, must be sought for in some animal different from the addax. The required characters seem to be found in a group of antelopes described by Mr. Bennett (Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. i). They have many peculiarities in common with the group which includes the spring-bok (Antidorcas euchore) and the houte-bok (Damalis pygarga), those fine white-rumped species of South Africa, but are distinguished by the characters of the horns, which are larger, thicker, more bovine, and of bolder curvature, turning first almost horizontally backwards, and then hooked abruptly forwards. The legs are long, the neck long and slender, and there is a white patch on the throat in all the species. The group is confined to the northern half of the African continent. The best-known species is the mhorr (Antilope mhorr, Bennett), which stands two feet eight inches high at the croup. The horns are ringed from the base about half- wayr up, whence to the tip they are round, smooth, and obtusely pointed. The expression of the face is gentle; the eye large, dark, and liquid. The tail is long, close-haired at the base, but tipped with a tuft of long black hair — a very ox-like character. The general hue of the coat, which is short and sleek, is a deep brownish red; the line of the belly and the inner surface of the limbs are white. But the whole region around the base of the tail is pure white, abruptly separated from the dark red of the flanks; the patch running forwards in a point on each hip, and downwards on the posterior slurface of the thighs. The strong contrast of the two colors has a very singular effect, and wouuld probably be seized on to form a descriptive appellation. Two males of this beautiful species were sent to the Zoological Society from Morocco; they were not, however, indigenous to that country, but had been brought from the eastern side of the desert. The species is hunted by the Arabs for the sake of the stomachal concretion called bezoar, to which it is peculiarly subject, and which is so highly valued in Oriental pharmacy. These stones are called in Morocco baid el-

⇒Bible concordance for PYGARG.

mhorr, or mhorr's eggs. There is, however, another species, considerably larger than the mhorr, but lhaving the same general form and the same distributions of the colors. It is the addra (A. ruficolis), a fine beast found in the wastes of Nubia by Ruppell, and by Hemprich and Ehrenberg in Dongola. This animal stands about three feet three inches high at the croup and is five feet four inches in length. It is seen in considerable flocks on the eastern borders of the Great Desert, and may well have been the pygarg of the ancients. See Tristram, Natural History of the Bible, p. 126; Wood, Bible Animals, p. 141 sq.; Bible Educator, ii, 24, 135, 167. SEE ANTELOPE.