146 HUNTING ADVENTURES. 



either by night or by day." Such encounters are generally with- 

 out any fatal results, if the man does not commence the attack ; 

 the hyaena sets up a howl, and doggedly walks away, with his 

 peculiar limping motion, which gives him an appearance of lame- 

 ness ; but when he is attacked, his resistance is as fierce as it is 

 obstinate. 



The hyaena has always been an object of aversion to mankind ; 

 and this feeling has been kept up, not only by the showman's 

 stories of " that cruel and untameable beast, that never was yet 

 tamed by man," but by writers of natural history, from the days 

 of Pliny to those of Goldsmith. The latter pleasant compiler tells 

 us, " no words can give an adequate idea of this animal's figure, 

 deformity, and fierceness. More savage and untameable than any 

 other quadruped, it seems to be forever in a state of rage or 

 rapacity." With regard to its deformity, we are rather of opinion 

 with Sir Thomas Brown, that " there is a general beauty in the 

 works of God ; and therefore no deformity in any kind of species 

 of creature whatsoever ;" and, with him, we " cannot tell by what 

 logic we call a toad, a bear, or an elephant ugly, they being 

 created in those outward shapes and figures which best express 

 those actions of their inward forms."* That the hyaena can be 

 tamed, and most completely and extensively so, there can be ho 

 doubt. "The cadaverous crocuta," (the spotted hyaena,) says 

 Barrow, in his Travels in Southern Africa, " has lately been 

 domesticated in the Snewberg, where it is now considered one of 

 the best hunters after game, and as faithful and diligent as any of 

 the common sorts of domestic dogs." Bishop Heber saw a gentle- 

 man in India, Mr. Traill, who had a hyaena for several years, 

 vhich followed him about like a dog, and fawned on those with 

 whom he was acquainted ; and the Bishop mentions this as an 

 instance of " how much the poor hyaena is wronged, when he is 

 described as untameable." M. F. Cuvier notices an animal of 

 this species that had been taken young at the Cape, and was 

 tamed without difficulty. His keepers had a complete command 



ver his afiecticns. He one day escaped from his cage, and 







Beligio Medici, 4 16. 



