Gazelle

The bush gazelle is the most common antelope in Third Age Near Harad, found in herds of twenty to a hundred in semi-arid country from the Aegardh to the hills and eastward to Chy. A darker breed, the marsh gazelle, lived in herds of a thousand or more along the length of the Saromis in the Second Age, but is now a secretive creature, found only where swamp or rough ground make farming impossible along the rivers. The bush gazelle has two short, straight horns and a white double stripe on its forehead. While only a little larger than a goat, It serves as common totemic animal amng the urdwan, praised for its ability to find food on barren bursk and steppe and to run for an hour or more at twice the speed of a horse. The marsh gazelle has a narrower, brighter stripe between its horns. Sihadin who wear its horns and stripe on their pennants are bragging of their ancestry, remembering a time when the Bozishnarod first conquered the river-lands and the gazelle was still common enough to provide them with food and hide.