HYAENA.] NATURAL HISTORY. 165 



ancients say, that the apple or pupil of his eye is turned 

 into such a stone, and that if a man lay it under his 

 tongue, he shall be able to foretell and prophesy of things 

 to come. Their neck cannot bend, except the whole 

 body be turned about. This beast hath a very great 

 heart. There is a fish of this name which turneth sex. 

 [Hyaenas] engender not only among themselves, but also 

 with dogs, lions, tigers and wolves. This is accounted a 

 most subtle and crafty beast, and the female is far more 

 subtle than the male, and therefore more seldom taken, for 

 they are afraid of their own company. If she find a man 

 or dog on sleep she [kills it if it be smaller than herself, 

 and runs away if it be bigger]. One of these coming to a 

 man asleep in a sheep-cote, by laying her left hand or fore- 

 foot to his mouth, made or cast him into a dead sleep, 

 and afterward digged about him such a hole like a grave, 

 as she covered all his body over with earth, except his 

 throat and head, whereupon she sat, until she suffocated 

 and stifled him ; yet this is attributed to her right foot. 

 There is also great hatred between a pardel and this beast, 

 for if after death their skins be mingled together, the hair 

 falleth off from the pardel's skin, but not from the 

 Hyaena's. He that will go safely through the mountains 

 or places of this beast's abode must carry in his hand a 

 root of coloquintida. Also if a man compass his ground 

 about with the skin of a crocodile, an Hyaena, or a sea- 

 calf, and hang it up in the gates or gaps thereof, the 

 fruits enclosed shall not be molested with hail or lightning. 

 And a man clothed with this skin may pass without fear 

 or danger through the midst of his enemies. A fig-tree 

 also is never oppressed with hail or lightning ; and the 

 true cause hereof is assigned by the philosophers to be the 

 bitterness of it ; for the influence of the heavens hath no 

 destructive operation upon bitter, but upon sweet things. 

 If the left foot and nails be bound up together in a linen 

 bag, and so fastened unto the right arm of a man, he shall 

 never forget whatsoever he hath heard or knoweth. And 

 if he cut off the right foot with the left hand and wear 

 the same, whosoever seeth him shall fall in love with 

 him, besides the beast. Also the marrow of the right foot 

 is profitable for a woman that loveth not her husband, if it 

 be put into her nostrils. And with the powder of the left 



