32 
The Animal-Lore of Shakspeare’s Time. 
or lynx, in the affinity of the words. His skinne is used by noble¬ 
men, and is sold for a great price. He is angry at none but them 
which offer him injury. His voice is like a cat’s, when he would snatch 
away the food from his fellow. He is loving and gentle unto his 
keeper, and not cruell unto any man.” 
The Civet was found in Africa and India. By some 
writers it was called the hyaena, by others the 
musk cat. The only resemblance between 
the civet and a cat lies in the shape of the ears and some 
strong whisker-like hairs. A Frenchman, who wrote a 
Commentary on Du Bartas (p. 264), tells us that— 
“Belon, in the second booke of his singularities, the twentieth 
chapter, holdeth that the hyena of the ancients is the civet, which 
is somewhat greater then a badger, with a pointed muzzell, having 
mustachies, her eyes shining and red, her eares round, with two black 
spots, her body spotted with black and white, her feete and tayle 
blacke: she liveth upon flesh, and is very nimble, but that which 
Pliny saith, seemeth to allude to some beast more strange and savage.” 
The perfume obtained from the civet was formerly 
valued as a medicine, and realized a high price. It was 
also an indispensable article in the toilet of a fop. Among 
the other changes in Benedick’s appearance, Don Pedro 
notices, “ A’ rubs himself with civet: can you smell him 
out by that ? ” to which Claudio adds, “ That’s as much 
as to say, The sweet youth’s in love.” ( Much Ado, iii. 2, 50.) 
The Ichneumon was sometimes called the Indian 
mouse, or Pharaoh’s rat. Its life history is 
so closely connected with that of the crocodile 
that nothing further need be said of it in this place. 
The Hyaena was the scavenger of the East, and from 
its fondness for carrion, which led it to rifle 
graveyards, it was always regarded with feel¬ 
ings of horror and disgust. There was a notion that it 
could imitate the voice of a man. Lyly ( Eujohues , p. 110) 
writes, “ Hiena, when she speaketh lyke a man deviseth 
most mischief.” 
Hysena. 
