72 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



resembling the united sound of a pipe and a trumpet ; it 

 is not less swift of foot than a stag, and is wild, and 

 devours men." 



Pliny also quotes Ctesias, but he slightly diverges, for 

 he says it has azure eyes, and is of the colour of blood ; 

 he also affirms it can imitate the human speech. Par 

 parcnthcse he mentions, in conjunction with the Manticora, 

 another animal similarly gifted : " By the union of the 

 hyaena with the Ethiopian lioness, the Corocotta is pro- 

 duced, which has the same faculty of imitating the voices 

 of men and cattle. Its gaze is always fixed and im- 

 moveable ; it has no gums in either of its jaws, and the 

 teeth are one continuous piece of bone ; they are enclosed 

 in a sort of box, as it were, that they may not be blunted 

 by rubbing against each other." 



Mais, rcvenons a nos moutons, or rather Mantichora. 

 Topsell, in making mention of this beast, recapitulates 

 all that Ctesias has said on the subject, and adds : 

 " And I take it to be the same Beast which Aviccn calleth 

 Marion, and Maricomorion, with her taile she woundeth 

 her Hunters, whether they come before her or behinde 

 her, and, presently, when the quils are cast forth, new 

 ones grow up in their roome, wherewithal she over- 

 cometh all the hunters ; and, although India be full of 

 divers ravening beastes, yet none of them are stiled 

 with a title of Andropophagi, that is to say, Men-eaters ; 

 except onely this Mantichora. When the Indians take 

 a Whelp of this beast, they fall to and bruise the 

 buttockes and taile thereof, so that it may never be fit 

 to bring (forth) sharp quils, afterwards it is tamed with- 

 out peril. This, also, is the same beast which is called 

 Lcucrocuta, about the bignesse of a wilde Asse, being in 

 legs and hoofes like a Hart, having his mouth reaching on 



