l()(i DIVISION I. YEKTEBl.'AL ANIMALS. — CLASS I. MAMMALIA. 



Linn.) (sec Pl.ite IX.), found from India to Senegal; tlic Spotted 

 Ilviena (//. <Tornl<i), inhaliiting South Africa, and the Woolly IlyaM-.a 

 (//. hviKtitcn) . 



( !f all the manniialians they are the nio^t hrntal and disgusting. Their 

 eoura^e is extraordinary, fearing neither lions nor tigers, and standing in 

 awe of man only in the daytime. Their whole appearance is repulsive in 

 the extreme. A large head set on a protruded and stiff neck, high forelegs 

 and short bi>dy, and low hind quarters, a long bristly mane, extending from 

 the nape along the entire hack, a short and ill-formed tail, an awkward 

 gait, great jiersonal iineleanness, and a horrible ^■oice, all combine to form 

 an image of indescribal/Ie ugliness. 



It was, no doui^t, tlie hideous character of these animals whidi led the 

 ancients to regard ihcm ;is allied to demons. It was believed liy them that 

 the spt'cies was hermaphrodite, and changed sex at stated jieriods, being 

 alteiaiatclv the hya'ua and the troclius ; that, to deceive mankind, it could 

 imitate the liuman \oice ; and it is still averred that a caste of iron-smelters 

 ami smiths, in Abys.-inia, possess the mysterious power of changing their 

 persons into the aspect of hyaaias, and jicrpetrate all the demon-wonders 

 that were formerly ascrilied in Kiirope to the A\'ehr AVolf. 



Tlic tra\cllcr Bruce furnishes the following description of one of these 

 animals : — 



''One niulit, being very busily engaged in my tent, I heard something 

 pass behind me towards the bed, but, upon looking round, coidd pcrcei\c 

 notliing. Having finished what I was aljout, I went out, resohlug to return, 

 A\liir]i I did. I now perceived a pair of large liliic eyes glaring at me in 

 the dark. 1 callcil to my servant to iiriug a light ; antl there stood a hya'iia, 

 near the hca<l of my bc(l, with two or three large imnches of candles in his 

 mouth. As his mouth was I'ull, I was not .afraid of him; so, with my pike ■ 

 I struck him as near the heart as I could ju<lgc. It was not till then that 

 he showed anv signs of fierceness ; but feeling his wound, he let the candles 

 drop, and t■n(lca^ oi-ed to climb up the handle of the spear to arri\ e at me ; 

 so that, in self-defence, I was obliged to draw a pistol from my girdle and 

 shoot him : nearly at the same time my servant cleft his skull with a 

 battle-axe. 



" The hyaaia appears to be senseless and stupid during the day. I have 

 locked up with him a goat, a kid, and a lamb all day, wh.cn he was fasting, 

 and found tiiem in the evening alive and nnhurt. IJepcating the experiment 

 one night, he ate up a young ass, a-goat, and a fox, all before morning, .so 

 as to leave nothing but some small fragments of the ass's bones.*' 



Sjiarrmau furnishes us with the following story : '' One night, at a feast 

 near the Cape, a trumpeter, who had got himself well filled with liquor, was 



