DISCOVERED AT KIRKDALE, IN YORKSHIRE. 
23 
Sparman and Pennant mention that a single hyaena has been known 
to carry off a living man or woman in the vicinity of the Cape *. 
The strength of the hyaena’s jaw is such, that in attacking a dog, 
he begins by biting off his leg at a single snap. The capacity of his 
teeth, for such an operation, is sufficiently obvious from simple in¬ 
spection ; and, consistent with this strength of teeth and jaw, is the 
* It appears from the discussions of the learned Bochart, in his Hierozoicon, on the 
hyaena, that the peculiar habits of this animal had attracted the attention of the earliest 
naturalists, more especially his savage voracity, and practice of digging human bodies 
from their graves for the purpose of devouring them. He quotes the following passages: 
Aristotelis Hist. lib. viii. cap. 5. “ TujXjSwpu^sT 2k ipikusyoy Irj; o-a.pMipayla,p luiv dySpulrfuiy .”— 
Plinius, lib. viii. cap. 30. “ Ab uno animali sepulchra erui (traduntur) inquisitione cor- 
porum.”—Solinus, “ Eadem hyaena inquisitione corporum sepultorum busta emit.”— 
Hieronymus in Esaiam, capite Ixv. “ Semper cadavera persequitur et vivit succo et sanie 
corporum mortuorum.”—Et in Ieremiam, capite xiii. “ Vivit cadaveribus mortuorum, et 
de sepulchris solet effodere corpora.” 
Bochart shows also that certain parts of the body of this animal, particularly the 
atlas or first vertebra of the neck, which they called the “ nodus,” were used by the 
ancient enchanters in the ceremonies of their magical incantations. 
“ Hue quicquid feetu genuit natura sinistro 
Miscetur: non spuma canum, quibus unda timori est; 
Viscera non lyncis, non dirse nodus hysense, 
Defuit.” 
Lucanus, Lib. VI. v. 673, 
And contends that the same animal is also alluded to in the Old Testament, in 1 Samuel, 
ch. 13. v. 18, and Jeremiah, ch. 12. v. 9. 
In the former of these passages he is of opinion with Aquila, that the “ Valley of 
Zeboim” ought to have been translated the “ Valley of Hyaenas;” and in the latter he 
thinks with the Septuagint, that the words which in our version are rendered “ speckled 
bird,” should have been “ ravenous spotted beast,” i. e. hyaena. The Septuagint have 
it, “Mi; trmjXaiov uxlyrj; r* xXypovopia y.e l/xob” Mr. Parkhurst, also, and Scheuchzer are for 
establishing the hyaena in this passage. 
The proverbial enmity supposed to subsist between this animal and the dog is also 
mentioned by Oppian, Pliny, and /Elian, and alluded to in Ecclesiasticus, ch. xiii. 18. 
“Tlpe'i^vy vaivy it pop xoVa;”—“ What agreement is there between the hyaena and a dog?” 
