Marriage (q. v.), and all the relations springing from it, existed from the beginning (Gen. ii, 23-25) ; and, although polygamy was known among the ante- diluvians (Gen. iv, 19), it was most probably unlaw- ful ; for it must have been obvious that, if more than one wife had been necessary for a man, the Lord would not have confined the first man to one woman. The marriage of the sons of Seth with the daughters of Cain appears to have been prohibited, since the consequence of it was that universal depravity in the family of Seth so forcibty expressed in this short pas- sage, "All flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth" (Gen. vii, 11). This sin, described Orientally as an intermarriage of " the sons of God" with "the daughters of men" (Gen. vi, 2), appears to have been in its results one of the grand causes of the Deluge ; for if the family of Seth had remained pure and obe- dient to God, he would doubtless have spared the world for their sake, as he wonld have spared Sodom and Gomorrah had ten righteous men been found there, and as he would have spared his own people, the Jews, had they not corrupted themselves by in- termarriages with the heathen. Even the longevity of the antediluvians may have contributed to this ru- inous result. Vastly more time was upon their hands than was needful for clearing woodlands, draining swamps, and other laborious and tedious processes, in addition to their ordinary agriculture and care of cat- tle ; so that the temptations to idleness were likely to be verj' strong; and the next step would be to licen- tious habits and selfish violence. The ample leisure possessed b}' the children of Adam might have been employed for many excellent purposes of social life and religious obedience, and undoubtedly it was so employed by many ; but to the larger part it became a snare and the occasion of temptations, so that "the wickedness of man became great, the earth was cor- rupt before God, and was filled with violence" (Crit. Bill, iv, 14-20 ; see also Ant. U. Ilist. i, 142-201). — Kitto, s. v. See Deluge.
Antelope, a term apparently corrupted from the epithet " antkolops" (Gr. ch'Sog, ornament, and <Li//, the eye), applied by the ancients to the gazelle from the proverbial beauty of its eyes. It is now the name (antiloptu) of a division of the hollow-horned rumi- nants (genus Clavicoma), distinguished by certain pe- culiarities of the horn, the maxillary glands, and their slight figure (Drande's Diet. 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 indi- cated 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
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the natives as having some affinity to cattle, and others delicate and rather small, that may be com- pared 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 stria?, slender, and variously inflected, according to the subdivision or group to which they be- long. 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; the}' 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 contin- uation 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, com- pared with the legs, which are slender, firm, and ca- pable 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 Cyclopce- dia,s.v.; Kenglm,Antilope Nordost-Africa's, Jen.1864) 1. The yachmur' (llOFt^, Deut. xiv, 5 ; 1 Kings iv, 23) is not, as in our Auth. Vers, "the fallow-deer" (Sept. Sopicae., 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 Chal- daicjachmura, and describes it as a great goat. The Eastern Arabs still use the name jazmur. The leu-
Oryx Leucoryx, or White Antelope. coryx, 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 Petra:a, 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