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The distinctive characters of the animals of this Order are so strongly marked as to have been recognised in very early times. Even at the era of the Deluge we find a certain number of animals separated from the rest as "clean;" and at the giving of the Law these are defined in the following terms:—"Every beast that parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud,—." The Camels, it is true, exhibit some deviation from the common characters, forming the link of connexion with the order we have just relinquished; but with this trifling exception the cloven-footed Ruminants constitute a group of Mammalia remarkably compact, natural, and well-defined.

Each of the feet is terminated by two toes, encased in two hoofs, sharp-pointed, and presenting a flattened surface to each other, as though a single rounded hoof had been cleft. Behind the hoofs, there are two small spurs, which are the rudiments of lateral toes.

The faculty of rumination, or chewing the cud, is the most remarkable possessed by these animals: the vegetable food, swallowed almost as taken into the mouth, is returned after a while to undergo a second mastication, so as to fit it