The Ichneumon. 57 
eyes, and a pointed nose; the hair is rough and bristly, 
of a pale reddish grey. 
The Ichneumon is celebrated in the mythology of 
ancient Egypt, where it has long been domesticated, 
and where it was ranked amongst the divinities, on 
account of its great utility in destroying serpents, 
snakes, rats, mice, and other vermin : it is also fond of 
crocodiles' eggs, which it digs out of the sand where 
they have been deposited. It is a very fierce, though 
small animal, and will fight with dogs, foxes, and even 
jackals, with great fury. It will not breed in confine- 
ment, but may be easily tamed when taken young. 
The following particulars are related by M. D'Obson- 
ville, in his Essays on the Nature of various foreign 
Animals : — " I had an Ichneumon very young, which I 
brought up. I fed it at first with milk, and afterward 
with baked meat mixed with rice. It soon became even 
tamer than a cat ; for it came when called, and followed 
me, though at liberty, in the country. One day I 
brought this animal a small water-serpent alive, being 
desirous to know how far his instinct would carry him 
against a being with which he was as yet totally un- 
acquainted. His first emotion seemed to be astonish- 
ment mixed with anger, for his hair became erect ; but 
in an instant he slipped behind the reptile, and with 
remarkable swiftness and agility leaped upon its head, 
seized it, and crushed it between his teeth. This essay, 
and new food, seemed to have awakened in him his in- 
nate and destructive voracity, which till then had given 
way to the gentleness he had acquired from education. 
I had about my house several curious kinds of fowls, 
among which he had been brought up, and which, till 
then, he had suffered to go and come unmolested and 
unregarded : but a few days after, when he found him- 
self alone, he strangled them everyone, ate a little, and, 
as it appeared, drank the blood of two." 
The Moongus (Herpestes griseus) and the Garangan 
(Herpestes Javanicus) are eastern species of Ichneumons ; 
the former inhabits India, and the latter the island of 
lava. Like the Egyptian Ichneumon, they are great 
memies of snakes and other reptiles, and also destroy 
