Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/116

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102
ANT—ANT

possesses short, thick horns, directed backwards, divergent, with their points turned inwards. It occurs in the deserts lying between China and Thibet. The chiru (Pantholops Hodgsonii), inhabiting Thibet and the mountainous slopes of the Himalayas, possesses elongated horns of an annulated character, and is besides distinguished by a soft glandular swelling above each nostril. It has an abundant woolly coating ; and from the fact of it sometimes appearing with a single horn, the second horn being rudimentary or un developed, the mythical tales of " unicorns " are supposed

to have arisen.

The chicara (Tetmcerus quadricornis) (Plate II. fig. 4), or four-horned antelope, found in the forests of India generally, and plentifully in Bengal, is of small size, and distinguished by the presence, in the males only, of four horns, the larger pair of Avhich are situated on the upper aspect of the forehead, and are smooth, erect, inclined slightly forwards, divergent, and about three inches long. The smaller horns are situated in front of the first pair, and average in length an inch or more. The nyl ghau (Portax picta) (Plate II. fig, 3), found in Northern India, like its African representative, the gnu, appears to unite in itself the characters of the antelopes and oxen. The native name of the creature, nyl ghau, signifies blue ox, and by the inhabitants of India it is regarded as being an ox, although its true place is undoubtedly among the antelopes. In size the nyl ghau resembles a stag ; the tail is tufted ; and the horns, occurring in the males only, are curved upwards, and diverge at their extremities. The nyl ghau is susceptible of being partly domesticated, and it has been ascertained to breed freely in a tame state.

The European species of antelope include the chamois (Rupicapra Tragus) (Plate II. fig. 2), and the saiga (Coins or Antilocapra Saiga). The former is essentially European in its distribution, but the latter extends from Poland and Russia into Asia. The chamois inhabits the Alps and mountains of Southern Europe, and occurs in small herds. The horns are present in both males and females, and are of small size, and recurved at their extremities. The chamois may be regarded as tending to link the ante lope type to that of the sheep. The saiga is distinguished by the large size of the horns, and by the peculiar con formation of the nose, the opening of which is large, and bounded by a soft cartilaginous margin.

The American continent possesses but two representa tives of the antelope family. These are the so-called Rocky Mountain sheep or goat a true antelope and the prong- buck or cabrit of North American regions. The Rocky Mountain sheep or goat (Haplocerus laniger), possessing a coat of long woolly hair, is closely related to the chamois of Europe ; and in this form, as well as in the prongbuck, the connection between the antelopes and goats may be traced.

The prongbuck (Antilocaprafurc if era oramericana) (Plate I. fig. 6) presents a singular exception to the other mem bers of the antelope family, in the deciduous nature of the sheaths of the horns, which are annually shed and deve loped. Accessory hoofs are wanting in the prongbuck, and the lachrymal sinuses of other antelopes are undeveloped; as also are the "inguinal pores," or groin-sacs, found in most members of the family, and which secrete a viscid substance, the function of which is undetermined. The females are devoid of horns, and those of the males are branched in front, or are " furcate," a conformation of these structures not found in any other member of the antelope family. The chief habitat of the prongbuck appears to be the prairie lands of Central America, and its northern limit would appear to be about the fifty-third degree of north latitude.

(a. w.)

ANTEMNÆ, a small Latian town, of great antiquity, built on the top of a hill that rose above the alluvia] plain at the meeting of the Anio and Tiber. Hersilia, the wife of Romulus, was a native of Anteninse ; and the city was one of those that endeavoured to avenge the rape of the Sabine women. In purely historic times it is of the smallest importance. The Samnites were pur sued thither by Crassus, after the battle of the Colline Gate (82 B.C.), and surrendered there to Sulla. In 409 A.D. Alaric encamped on the hill, which now retains no trace of the ancient city.

ANTENOR, a Trojan elder of great prudence, who advised his fellow-townsmen to send Helen back to her husband, and in various ways showed himself not un friendly to the Greeks. In the Homeric poems there is no intimation of this disposition having led him into any breach of his natural allegiance ; but in the later develop ment of the romance he appears as a full-blown traitor, and in the general sack of the city his house, distinguished by a panther s skin at the door, is spared by the victors in reward of his treachery. He afterwards, according to various versions of the legend, either rebuilt a city on the site of Troy, or settled at Gyrene, or became the founder of Padua (Patavium} and several other towns in Eastern Italy.

ANTENOR, son of Euphranor, the native sculptor to whom the Athenians were indebted for the bronze statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton, which, after adorning the Ceramicus, were carried off to Susa by Xerxes, and restored, it is probable, by Alexander.

ANTEQUERA, an ancient city of the province of Malaga, in Spain, supposed to be the Roman Antiquaria, or Anticaria, beautifully situated in a fertile valley on the south of the river Guadaljorce, 28 miles N. of Malaga, and 45 W. of Granada. It occupies a commanding position, while the remains of its walls, and of a fine Moorish castle on a rock that overhangs the town, show how admirably its natural defences were supplemented by art. In 1410 it was recaptured from the Moors by the regent Fernando, and thereafter became one of the most important outposts of the Christian power in Spain. An- tequera possesses manufactures of flannels, paper, leather, silk, soap ; it has also a large trade in grain, fruit, and oil, while marble is quarried to a considerable extent in the neighbourhood. Population, 27,201.

ANTHEM is derived from the Greek avrtyuva, through the Saxon Antefn, and originally had the same meaning as antiphony. (See Antiphony.) It is now, however, generally restricted to a form of musical composition peculiar to the service of the Church of England, and appointed by the rubrics to follow the third collect at both morning and evening prayer, " in choirs and places where they sing." Several anthems are included in the English coronation service. The words are selected from Holy Scripture, or in some cases from the Liturgy, and the music is generally more elaborate and varied than that of psalm or hymn tunes. Anthems may be written for soli voices only, for the full choir, or for both, and according to this distinction are called respectively Verse, Full, and Full ivith Verse. Though the anthem of the Church of England is analogous to the motett of the Roman Catholic and Lu theran Churches, both being written for a trained choir, and not for the congregation, it is as a musical form essentially English in its origin and development. The English school of musi cians has from the first devoted its chief attention to this form, and scarcely a composer of any note can be named who has not written several good anthems. Tallis, Tye, Bird, and Farrant, in the 16th century; Orlando Gibbons, Blow, and Purcell, in the 1 7th ; and Croft, Boyce, Kent, Nares, Cooke, and Samuel Arnold, in the 18th, have composed anthems which are still to be regularly heard in cathedral services.