160 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



quainted with that country would think of asking 

 such a question. " Every one," he added, " knows 

 that those blacksmiths have the power of as- 

 suming the form of a hyaena, which as naturally 

 belongs to them as that of a man. I had a proof 

 of it a few days before 1 left Abyssinia. For while 

 walking and conversing with one of them, I hap- 

 pened to turn my liead aside for a few instants, and 

 on looking round again I found that he had changed 

 himself, and was trotting away at a little distance 

 from me under his new form.'* 



The hyaena crocuta, or spotted hyaena*, differs 

 from the former in its form and colour, as well as 

 its habits, which . are gregarious. It appears to 

 answer to the Chans of Pliny t, which Linnaeus 

 places in the Felis tribe. It is the Crocuta of 

 Strabot, which he considers a hybrid of the wolf and 

 the dog. Large packs of them infest the country 

 in many parts of Upper Ethiopia, but they do not 

 extend their visits to Nubia or Egypt ; and in for- 

 mer times also they seem to have been unknown 

 in Egypt. For the sculptured representations of 

 them show that they were only brought out of cu- 

 riosity as presents to the Pharaohs, to be placed 

 among the strange animals of foreign countries in 

 the vivaria, or zoological gardens, of the royal do- 

 main. Nor is there any probability of their having 

 held a place amongst the sacred animals either of 

 Egypt or Ethiopia. 



* The Mariifccn or Miiratceh of Berber and Sennaar. 

 -|- Plin. viii. 19. " EfTigie liipi, pardoruni nuiculis." 

 j Strabo, xvii. p. 533. 



