300 HYJEXA. 



that he saw a Hysena which had been rendered as 

 tame as a dog ; the other by the Count de Buffon, 

 who assures us, that in an exhibition of animals 

 at Paris, in the year 1773, there was a Hyrena 

 which had been tamed very early, and was appa- 

 rently divested of all its natural malevolence of dis- 

 position. A remarkable particularity in this ani- 

 mal, but which is sometimes observed in dogs, 

 &c. is, that when it is first dislodged from cover, 

 or obliged to run, it always appears lame for a 

 considerable space, and that sometimes to such a 

 degree, according to Mr. Bruce, as to make the 

 spectator suppose one of the hind legs to be brok- 

 en; but after running some time, this affection 

 goes off, and he runs swiftly away. The super- 

 stitions of the ancients respecting this animal, its 

 annual change of sex, &c. &c. are too absurd to 

 be even mentioned in the present period of illu- 

 mination. 



The Hyasna about Mount Libanus, Syria, the 

 north of Asia, and about Algiers, is known, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Bruce, to live mostly upon large 

 succulent bulbous roots, especially those of the 

 Fritillaria, &c. and that author informs us that 

 he has known large spaces of fields turned up to 

 get at onions or roots of those plants ; and these 

 were chosen with such care, that, after having 

 been peeled, they \vere refused and left on the 

 ground on account of a small rotten spot in them ; 

 Mr. Bruce, therefore, imagines that his primitive 

 manner of feeding was rather on vegetables than 

 on flesh ; but in Abyssinia he seems long to have- 



