The Roe or Gazelle

The roe or gazelle is the smallest animal of the antelope kind; it is only about two feet in height,and not more than half the size of the fallow-deer. Its eyes are remarkably soft and expressive;so that the people of those countries sometimes say of a beautiful woman, "She has the eyes of agazelle." Like the hart and hind, it is noted for its swiftness: so we read, in 1st Chronicles, 12 : 8,of men who were "as swift as the roes upon the mountains." In 2d Samuel, 2 : 18, it is said,"And Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe;" and in the Song of Solomon, "The voice of mybeloved ! behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills: my beloved islike a roe or a young hart."

The gazelle is often pursued in the chase; so Solomon says, "Deliver thyself as a roe from thehand of the hunter." They go in very large companies, sometimes as many as two or threethousand; and they are still found in great numbers on the hills of Judea, the land where ourSavior lived and died.

"The wild gazelle o'er Judah's hills

'Exulting, still may bound,

"And drink from all the living rills

"That gush on holy ground."

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