H Y R 
aperture of the mouth, when he keeps it clofe, in profile, 
is little more than an inch. The circumference of his 
fnout around both his jaws is three inches and three 
eighths j and round his head, juft above his ears, eight 
inches and five eighths: the circumference of his neck is 
eight inches and a half, and its length one inch and a half. 
He feems more willing to turn his body all together, than 
liis neck alone. The circumference of his body, meafured 
behind his fore-legs, is nine inches and three quarters ; 
and that of his body, where greateft, eleven inches and 
three eighths ; the length of his fore-leg and toe is three 
inches and a half; the length of the hind thigh is three 
inches and one eighth; and the length of the hind-leg to 
the toe, taken together, is two feet two inches ; the length 
of the fore-foot is one inch and three eighths ; the length 
of the middle toe fix lines, and its breadth fix lines alfo. 
The diftance between the point of the nofe and the firft 
corner of the eye is one inch and five eighths; and the 
length of his eye from one angle to the other, four lines. 
The difference from the fore-angle of his eye to the root 
of his ear is one inch and three lines; and the opening of 
his eye two lines and a half. His upper lip is covered 
with a pencil of ftrong hairs for muftachoes; the length 
of which is three inches and five eighths, and thofe of his 
eye-brows are two inches and two eighths. He has no tail, 
yet gives at firfl fight the idea of a rat rather than of any 
other creature. His colour is a grey mixed with a red- 
difh-brovvn, perfectly like the wild or warren rabbit. His 
belly is white from the point of the lower jaw to where 
his tail would begin if he had one. All over his body he 
has fcattered hairs, ftrong, and polifhed like his lmifta- 
choes ; thefe are for the moil part two inches and a quar¬ 
ter in length ; his ears are round, not pointed ; he makes 
no noife that ever I heard ; but certainly chews the cud.” 
[Dr. Shaw obferves, that this particular of the afhkoko 
feems very doubtful, and may probably be owing to the 
peculiar motions of the mouth refembiing thofe of the 
hare, which has alfo been fuppofed by fome to ruminate. 
Gen. Zool.~\ “ To difcover this was the principal reafOn of 
my keeping him alive; thofe with whom he is acquainted 
he follows with great affiduity. The arrival of any living 
creature, even of a bird, makes him feek for a hiding- 
place; and I fhut him up in a cage with a fmall chicken, 
after omitting to feed him a whole day; the next morn¬ 
ing the chicken was unhurt, though the afhkoko came to 
me with great figns of having fuffered with hunger. I 
likewife made a fecond experiment, by inclofing two 
fmaller birds with him for the fpace of feveral weeks ; 
neither were thefe hurt, though both of them fed without 
impediment of the meat that was thrown into his cage ; 
and the fmalleft of thefe, a titmoufe, leemed to be advanc¬ 
ing in a fort of familiarity with him : though I never faw 
it venture to perch upon him, yet it would eat frequently, 
and at the fame time, of the food upon which the afhkoko 
was feeding; and in this confifted chiefly the familiarity 
I.fpeak of, for the afhkoko himfelf never fhowed any al¬ 
teration of behaviour upon the prefence of the bird, but 
treated it with a kind of abfolute indifference. The cage 
indeed was large, and, the birds having a perch to fit upon 
in the upper part of it, they did not annoy one another. 
“ In Amliara, this animal is called ajkkoiio, which, I ap¬ 
prehended, is derived from the fingularity of thofe long 
crinaceous hairs, which, like fmall thorns, grow about 
his back, and which, in Amhara, are called ajhok. In 
Arabia and Syria, he is called Ifrael's Jkeep , or Gannim If- 
rael, for what reafon I know not, unlefs it is chiefly from 
his frequenting the rocks of Horeb and Sinai, where the 
children of Ifrael made their forty years peregrination ; 
perhaps this name obtains only among the Arabians. I 
apprehend he is known by that of faphan in the Hebrew, 
and is the animal erroneoufly called by our tranflators cu- 
niculus, the rabbit or coney.” 
HYRCA'NI. There were many people fo called; and 
cities and regions named Hyrcania;. in the hiftory of 
■which, there will be uniformly found fome reference , to 
II Y S 655 
fire. The name is a compound of Ur-chane, the god of 
fire. He was particularly worfhipped at Ur, in Chaldea ; 
and one tribe of that nation were called Urchani. Here 
was the fource of fire-worfliip ; all the country was re¬ 
plete with bitumen and fire. There was a region called 
Hyrcania inhabited by the Medes, which feems to have 
been of the fame inflammable nature. The people were 
called Hyrcani and Aftabeni; which latter fignifies the 
fons of fire. In Lydia there Were Hyrcani, a city Hyrca¬ 
nia, and a Campus Hyrcinius; it was near Hierapolis, Ca- 
roura, and Folia Charonea, all famed for fire. Perhaps 
the Hyrcinian Foreft was no other than the Ilurcanian, 
fo called from the god Urcan, who was worlhipped here 
as well as in the eaft. Among the Alpes Tridentini was 
a Regio Hercynia; and here the Hercynian Forell com¬ 
menced, and from which it receives its name. 
HYRCA'NI AN, adj. [from Hyrcania .] Belonging to 
Hyrcania; produced in Hyrcania. 
HYRCA'NIAN,yi A native of Hyrcania ; an inhabi¬ 
tant of Hyrcania. 
HYRCA'NUS, a name common to fome of the high 
priefts of Judaea. Jofephus. 
HY'RIA, in ancient geography, a county of Bceotia, 
near Aulis, with a lake, river, and town, of the fame name. 
It received its name from Hyrie, a woman who wept fo 
much for the lofs of her fon, that Ihe was changed 
into a fountain. Ovid. —A town of Ifauria, on the Caly- 
cadnus. 
HYRST, HURST, HERST, are all from the Saxon 
hypj"e, a wood or grove. Gib/on. 
HYS, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the-Arabian Irak, 
on the Euphrates : 120 miles fouth of Bagdad. 
HY'SON, f. A kind of fine tea. 
HY'SON, adj. Belonging to a fine kind of tea. 
IHYS'SOP,/ in botany. See Hyssopus. 
HYS'SOP, HEDGE. See Gratiola. 
HYSSOP'IC, adj. Belonging to hylfop ; belonging to 
the art of chemiftry, chemical. Scott. 
HYSSOPIFO'LIA. See Lythrum. 
HYSSO'PIUM. See Teucrium. 
HYSSO'PUS, J. Hyssop ; in botany, a genus of the 
clafs didynamia, order gymnolpermia, natural order of 
verticillatse, (labiatae, Jujf.) The generic characters are— 
Calyx : perianthium one-leafed, cylindrical, oblong, ftri- 
ated, acutely five-toothed, permanent. Corolla : one-pe- 
talled, ringent; tube cylindrical, (lender, the length of 
the calyx; throat inclined; upper lip ftraight, flat, fliort, 
roundilb, emarginate ■, lower lip trifid ; lateral (egments 
Ihorter, blunt, the middle one crenate, obcordate, acute, 
with diftant lobes. Stamina -. filaments four, upright,, 
longer than the corolla, diftant; the two upper ones 
(hotter, but the two longer nearer to the lower lip ; an- 
therae Ample. Piftillum: germ four-parted; ftyle filiform, 
under the upper lip, and of the fame length; ftigma bifid. 
Pericarpium: none; the calyx foftering the feeds. Seedsc 
four, fubovate.— EJJeutial Char abler. Corolla : lower lip 
with a fmall middle crenate fegment. Stamina : ftraight, 
diftant. 
Species. 1. Hyflopus officinalis, or common hylfop ; 
fpikes-direfted one way, leaves lanceolate. Height a foot 
and a half; ftems firft fquare, afterwards round, with 
fmall feifile leaves in pairs on their iower part, and feven 
or eight Very narrow ere ft leaves or braftes, fpringing 
■from tire fame joint; on the upper part flowers in whorls,-, 
the lower ones half an inch apart, the upper almoft joined. 
Seeds black. The whole plant has a ftrong aromatic feent. 
It flowers in July and Augiift, and the feeds ripen in 
September. The roots will abide many years. Native of. 
the fouth of Europe, and Siberia ; Miller (ays the Levant. - 
Cultivated in 1596 by Gerarde. 
There are many varieties of hylfop; Ray enumerates 
nine from Parkinlon and others. Mr. Miller makes that 
with red flowers, ( 3 , to be a diftinft fpecies, not growing 
fo tall as the common fort with blue flowers, branching 
more, the fpikesof flowers much Ihorter, the whorls clofer, 
having.. 
