The
celebrated traveler, Dr. Clarke, gives a very curious account of a goat
which he came across in Arabia. This goat would perform some most
surprising feats of dexterity. "We met," he says, "an Arab with a goat,
which he led about the country to exhibit, in order to gain a
livelihood. He had taught this animal, while he accompanied its
movements with a song, to mount upon little cylindrical blocks of wood,
placed successively one above another, and resembling in shape the dice
belonging to a backgammon table. In this manner the goat stood, first on
the top of two; afterward of three, four, five, and six, until it
remained balanced upon the summit of them all, elevated several feet
above the ground, and with its fore feet collected upon a single point,
without throwing down the disjointed fabric on which it stood. The
diameter of the upper cylinder, on which its four feet alternately
remained until the Arab had ended his ditty, was only two inches, and
the length of each was six inches. The most curious part of the
performance took place afterward; for the Arab, to convince us of the
animal's attention to the turn of the air, sometimes interrupted the
ordinary _da capo_, or repeat, and as often as he did so, the goat
tottered, and appeared uneasy. When the man suddenly stopped, in the
middle of his song, the animal fell to the ground."
[Illustration: THE WONDERFUL FEAT OF THE GOAT.
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