This animal in Egypt is called _mangutia_, but we shall adopt the name
_ichneumon_ (_fig. 172._) given it by Aristotle, and others. It is as
domestic in Egypt as the cat is in Europe; and is alike serviceable to
destroy rats and mice. But its inclination for prey is much stronger
and more violent, for it hunts and eats with the same avidity, birds,
quadrupeds, serpents, lizards, and insects. It attacks every living
creature, and feeds entirely on animal flesh; its courage is equal to
the sharpness of its appetite, being neither intimidated by the anger
of the dog, nor the malice of the cat; it even dreads not the bite of
the serpent, but pursues, seizes, and kills them, however venomous. As
soon as it begins to feel the effects of their venom, it immediately
goes in search of antidotes, and particularly of a root which the
Indians call by its name, and which, they say, is a most sure and
powerful remedy against the bite of the viper or asp. It sucks the
eggs of the crocodile, as well as those of fowls and birds; it also
kills and eats the young crocodiles, though they are very strong even
when scarcely come out of the shell; and as fable commonly precedes
truth, it has been alleged that, in consequence of this antipathy, the
ichneumon enters the body of the crocodile when he is asleep, and never
quits him till it has devoured his entrails.
Naturalists have supposed that there are several kinds of ichneumons,
because there are some larger, and of a different colour from others;
but if we consider, that being often reared in houses, they must, like
other domestic animals, undergo changes, we shall readily perceive that
this diversity of colour and size only indicates simple varieties,
not sufficient to constitute a separate species; especially as in the
two ichneumons which I have seen alive, and in many stuffed skins
I examined, I did not observe that the intermediate shades both of
size and colour differed from the rest by any evident and constant
character; and it only appears, that in Egypt, where the ichneumons may
be said to be domestic, they are larger than those in India, where they
are wild.
Nomenclators, who are never willing that a being should be only what
it is, have greatly varied on the subject of the ichneumon. Linnæus
first made it of the badger kind, and directly after of the ferret.
Hasselquist, following the lessons of his master, also makes it a
badger. Klein and Brisson have placed it in the weasel class, others in
the otter, and some with the rat.[AS] I only quote these ideas to shew
the want of consistency, and the contradictions, which are to be met
with in what are called generic denominations, and which are generally
false, arbitrary, vague, and equivocal.
[AS] Professor Cuvier classes it with the bear.
The ichneumon is fond of living by the sides of rivers. During the
inundations it quits its habitation, and even seeks for prey near
inhabited places. They walk without making any noise, and change
their manner as occasion requires. Sometimes they carry their heads
erect, foreshorten their bodies, and rise upon their hind-legs; at
other times they creep and lengthen their bodies like a serpent. It
often sits upon its hind-legs, and more often darts like an arrow
upon its prey; its eyes are lively and full of fire; its physiognomy
is beautiful, its body very agile, legs short, tail thick and very
long, and its hair rough, and sometimes curled. Both male and female
have a remarkable orifice, independent of the natural passages; a kind
of pouch, in which an odoriferous liquor is secreted; and some have
asserted that the ichneumon opens this pouch to refresh itself when too
hot. Its nose is very sharp, and its mouth narrow, which prevents it
from seizing any thing very large; but these wants are amply supplied
by agility and courage. It very easily strangles a cat, though bigger
and stronger than itself; it often fights with dogs, and however large
commonly gets the better of them.
Their growth is very quick, and their lives but of short duration:
they are very common throughout all the southern parts of Asia, from
Egypt to Java; and are even to be met with in Africa, as far as the
Cape of Good Hope; but they will not live and produce in our temperate
climates; they are distressed by wind, and the frost destroys them;
to avoid the one, and to counteract the effects of the other by
warmth, they roll themselves up with their heads under their bellies.
The ichneumon was much esteemed by the ancient Egyptians, and is
still protected with much care upon account of the essential service
it performs in the destruction of noxious animals, particularly the
crocodiles, whose eggs it knows how to discover even in the sand,
and which creatures would become very formidable, from their great
multiplication, one female laying near five hundred eggs, if it were
not that the ichneumons destroy them.