296 
pliny's NATUEAL HISTOBT. [Book VIII. 
and Theophrastus informs ns, that the people of Ehoeteum^^ 
were driven away by scolopendrse.^^ But we must now return 
to the other kinds of wild beasts. 
CHAP. 44. (30.) THE HY^NA. 
It is the vulgar notion, that the hyaena possesses in itself 
both sexes, being a male during one year, and a female the 
next, and that it becomes pregnant without the co-operation 
of the male ; Aristotle, however, denies this.^^ The neck, with 
the mane, runs continuously into the back-bone, so that the 
animal cannot bend this part without turning round the whole 
body. Many other wonderful things are also related of this ani- 
mal ; and strangest of all, that it imitates the human voice among 
the stalls of the shepherds ; and while there, learns the name of 
some one of them, and then calls him away, and devours him. 
It is said also, that it can imitate a man vomiting, and that, 
in this way, it attracts the dogs, and then falls upon them. 
It is the only animal that digs up graves, in order to obtain 
the bodies of the dead. The female is rarely caught : its 
eyes, it is said, are of a thousand various colours and changes 
of shade. It is said also, that on coming in contact with its 
shadow, dogs will lose their voice, and that, by certain ma- 
gical influences, it can render any animal immoveable, round 
which it has walked three times. 
CHAP. 45. THECOEOCOTTA; THE MANTICHOEA.^^ 
By the union of the hysena with the Ethiopian lioness, the 
and destructive nature of the red ants on the coast of Guinea ; and it is not 
improbable that it is to these that Pliny alludes. 
•-^6 See B. V. c. 33. 
29 This is mentioned by JElian, Anim. Nat. B. xv. c. 26.— B. Tlie 
scolopendra is one of the multipede insects. 
■■^0 Aristotle, De Gener. Anim. B. iii. c. 6, and Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 32, 
accounts for the vulgar error, by stating that the hysena has a peculiar 
structure of the parts about the anus, which might, to an unpractised eye, 
give the idea, that it possesses the generative organs of both sexes. jElian, 
Anim. Nat. B. i. c. 25, and Oppian, Cyneget. B. iii. c. 289, have adopted 
this erroneous opinion. What is said respecting the hyaena, in the remain- 
ing part of this Chapter, is mostly without foundation. — B. 
31 We have had some account given of the mantichora, in c. 30. The 
mantichora and the corocotta are altogether imaginary. — B. Cuvier, in 
