208 THE STRIPED HYJENA. 



thick and lengthy mane, which may be said indeed to be con- 

 tinued even upon the tail, which is also covered with lengthy 

 tufts of hair. The mane stands erect when the animal is feeding 

 or angry. Both mane and tail are marked with blackish spots 

 or stripes variously and irregularly disposed. In different 

 specimens, indeed, much variety is observable in the ground 

 colour of the whole body and the disposition of its markings. 



Not only the travelling zoologists, who invite the curious 

 crowd to " walk up and behold the living wonders o' Natur," 

 but the natural historians, from Pliny to Goldsmith, have most 

 scandalously abused and misrepresented the hyaena, giving it 

 such a character that it is almost surprising that the animal 

 has obtained a situation in the establishment of the Zoological 

 Society. Goldsmith, as though he meant to wrong the poor 

 creature as much as possible, says, " no words can give an 

 adequate idea of its figure, deformity, and fierceness. More 

 savage and untameable than any other quadruped, it seems 

 to be for ever in a state of rage or rapacity." As for its 

 deformity, let us imagine the hyaena reproving its revilers in the 

 language of Sir Thomas Brown: " There is a general beauty 

 in the works of God, and, therefore, no deformity in any species 

 of creatures whatsoever ; and I cannot tell by what logic you 

 call any animals ugly, they being created in those outward 

 shapes and figures which best express the actions of their 

 inward forms."* The notion of the untameableness of the 

 hyaena has been refuted by several instances to the contrary. 

 When taken young, a proviso on which much depends in the 

 domestication of all wild animals, he soon becomes exceedingly 

 tame and docile, and much attached to his master, especially if 

 he allow him a certain degree of liberty ; but if, from an igno- 

 rant distrust of his disposition, he should keep him in close 

 restraint, the hyaena becomes as savage as might a sane man 

 if locked up as a lunatic. This will account for the surly and 

 even dangerous nature of those specimens which are kept closely 

 pent up in the travelling menageries. 



* ReligioMedici,p.l6. 



