Chamois (Hastings' Dictionary)

This was one of the wild animals allowed to the Israelites as food (Dt 14°), and therefore presumably acce.ssible to them. This would make impossible the renderings cnmelopnrd and chamois. Tristram establishes a very strong probability that it is the mountain, sheep of Egypt and Arabia, called in N. Africa aoudad, and in Arabia ^eisA, which signifies a ram. It is known to naturalists as Ovis traijdfiphus, and lives in small llodxs in the most rugged mountain dis- tricts from Bai'bary to Egypt. The kehsh of Sinai is probably identical with it, thougli as yet no naturalist lias seen it. The Bedawln know it well It may well be supposed that it was abundant in the Mo.saic age, and, as it was allowed to the Israelites for food, they may have done muih toward its extinction in tliose parts. It is more than 3 ft. in height, has no inane, but long hair down its throat and breast, and on the fore-legs, forming a sort of rutlles to the knee. It is very active, bounding from rock to rock. It has massive bonis, 2 ft. in length, and curving gently backward. G. E. Post. CHAMPAIGN means 'an open plain' (from Lat. Campania, It. rampntjna, old l'"r. rhampai^;nc\ It occurs Dt 11° (in Kill ihampiiin, a later form wliidi was introduce<l in the oeg. of I6tli lunt.) 'the Cnnannites, which dwell in the c' (^Jiv, RV ' Arabah ') ; Ezk 37'"° (1611 chinnpian, a still latev form), and .Ith 5' 'in the c. countries' (^i- roU irtJiois, RV 'in the plains'). The word is pron. iham'pdn. J. HASTINGS. 370 CHAMPION CHAPEL CHAMPION (from late Lat. campio, one who fights in the campus or opon plain) is an accurate tr. of the Heb. in 1 S IT- ^ (D-jgrru-K, lit. 'the man of the space between,' that is, the space between the two armies, which is called in Gr. the nrralx- fuof). But in 17" Goliath is simply called ' mighty one ' (112?), and the ' champion ' of AV and R V is unhappy. J. HASTINGS.