26 THE NATURAL HISTORY 



tends to heighten ; this howl is very peculiar, its 

 beginning resembles the voice of a man moaning^ 

 and its latter part as if he were making a violent ef- 

 fort to disburden his stomach ; as it is loud and 

 frequent it might perhaps have been sometimes 

 mistaken for that of a human voice in distress, and 

 have given rise to the account of the ancients, who 

 tell us that the Hyaena makes its moan to attract in- 

 cautious travellers, and then to destroy them . How- 

 ever this may be, it seems the most untractable of 

 all quadrupeds ; nor does its courage fall short of 

 its ferocity ; it defends itself against the lion, is a 

 match for the panther, attacks the ounce, and seldom 

 fails to conquer ; it is a solitary animal, residing in 

 the caverns of mountains, in the clefts of rocks, or 

 in dens that it has formed for itself under the earth. 

 There is something particularly gloomy and savage 

 in this creature, which seems to indicate extreme 

 malignity of disposition, and its manners while in 

 captivity correspond with this appearance, being in 

 general fierce and untractable. The opinion so 

 decidedly miantained by most keepers of wild beasts, 

 that the Hyaena cannot be tamed, appears however 

 to be erroneous, as there are at least two instances 

 of the contrary on record, one by Mr. Pennant, who 

 declares that he saw an Hyaena which had been made 

 as tame as a dog ; and the other by Buffon, who 

 assures us that in an exhibition of animals at Paris, 

 in the year 17,73, there was an Hyaena which had 

 been tamed when very young, and was apparently 

 divested of all its natural malevolence of disposi- 



