Aristotle has left us two accounts by which alone the hyæna (_fig.
110._) might easily be distinguished from all other animals.
Nevertheless, travellers and naturalists have confounded him with no
less than four other species, namely, the jackall, glutton, civet, and
the baboon; all of which are carnivorous and ferocious like the hyæna,
and all have some few particular resemblances to him, whence these
errors may have originated. The jackall inhabits the same countries,
and like the hyæna resembles the wolf in form; like him also he feeds
upon dead carcasses, and digs up graves to devour their contents. The
glutton has the same voracity, the same appetite for corrupted flesh,
the same propensity for digging the dead out of their graves; and
though he belongs to a different climate, and his figure is widely
different from that of the hyæna, yet from this affinity of disposition
authors have thought themselves warranted in considering them as of
the same species. The civet is a native of the same countries as the
hyæna, and like him has a streak of long hair along the back, and also
a particular opening, or glandular pouch; characteristics which belong
only to a few animals, and which induced Bellon to suppose the civet
was the hyæna of the ancients. As to the baboon, which has hands and
feet like those of a man or a monkey, he resembles the hyæna still less
than the other three, and it must be solely from their name that they
have been confounded together.
The hyæna, according to Dr. Shaw, is called _dubbah_ in Barbary; and
Marmol, and Leo Africanus, say, the baboon is distinguished by the name
of _dabuh_; and as the baboon belongs to the same climates, scratches
up the earth and is nearly of the same form with the hyæna; these
circumstances first deceived travellers, and naturalists adopted their
blunders without investigation; and even those who distinguished the
two animals, retained the name of _dabuh_ to the hyæna, which in fact
belongs to the baboon. It appears, then, that the hyæna is neither the
_dabuh_ of the Arabians, the _jesef_ or _sesef_ of the Africans, nor
the _deeb_ of Barbary. But to put a final stop to this confusion of
names, I shall give, in a few words, the substance of the inquiries I
have made with respect to those animals.
Aristotle calls it by two names, _hyæna_ and _glanus_; names which
we may be assured are applied to the same animals by comparing the
passages wherein they are mentioned.[Q] The ancient Latins retained the
name hyæna, and never adopted that of glanus. In the writings of the
modern Latins, however, we find the _ganus_, or _gannus_, and _belbus_
employed as names for the hyæna. According to Rasis, the Arabians call
it _kabo_, or _zabo_, names that appear to be derived from the word
_zeeb_, which, in their language denominates a wolf. In Barbary the
hyæna bears the name of _dubbah_, as appears from the description given
of this animal by Dr. Shaw.[R] In Turkey it is called _zirtlaat_,
according to Nieremberg; in Persia _kaftaar_, as stated by Kæmpfer; and
_castar_, according to Pietro della Valle. These are the only names
which seem actually to refer to the hyæna; though it is nevertheless
probable that the _lycaon_ and the _crocuta_ of India and Ethiopia,
of which the ancients speak, are no other than the hyæna. Porphyry
expressly says that the _crocuta_ of the Indies is the hyæna of the
Greeks; and, indeed, all they have written, whether true or fabulous,
respecting the lycaon and crocuta, bears some analogy to the nature of
the hyæna. But we shall make no further conjectures on this subject
until we treat of fabulous animals, and the affinities they have with
real ones.
[Footnote Q: Aristotle Hist. Animal. lib. vi. c. 32. lib. viii. c. 5.]
[Footnote R: The Dubbah is nearly the size of the wolf. Its neck is so
exceedingly stiff, that when it offers to look behind, or even on one
side, it is obliged to turn the whole body, like the hog, the badger,
and the crocodile. Its colour is somewhat inclined to a reddish brown,
with a few brown streaks of a darker hue, it has very long hairs on
the neck which it can occasionally erect. Its paws are large and well
armed, with which it digs up plants, and sometimes dead bodies from
their graves. Next to the lion and panther, the dubbah is the most
fierce of all the animals of Barbary. As it is furnished with a mane,
has a difficulty in turning the head, and scrapes up dead bodies
from their graves, it has every appearance of being the hyæna of the
ancients. _See Shaw's Travels._]
The panther of the Greeks, the _lupus canarius_ of Gaza, and the
_lupus armenius_ of the modern Latins and Arabians, seem to be the
same animal, that is, the jackall, which the Turks call _cical_,
according to Pollux, and _thacal_ according to Spon and Wheeler; which
the modern Greeks distinguish by the name of _zachalia_, the Persians
_siechal_, or _schachal_, and the Moors of Barbary _deeb_; that of
jackall, however, having been adopted by a number of travellers, to
that we shall give the preference, and only remark at present, that he
differs from the hyæna not only in size, figure, and colour, but in
natural habits, for the hyæna is a solitary animal, while the jackall
is seldom seen but in troops. After the example of Kæmpfer, some of our
nomenclators have called the jackall _lupus aureus_, because his hair
is of a lively yellow hue.
It is therefore evident, that the jackall is a very different animal
from the hyæna; and no less so than the glutton, which is an animal
confined to the northern regions of Lapland, Russia, and Siberia; it is
a stranger even in the temperate climates, and therefore could never
have inhabited Arabia, or any of the other warm countries in which
the hyæna resides. It differs also in form, for the glutton bears a
strong resemblance to a very large badger; his legs are so short that
his belly almost reaches the ground; he has five toes on each of his
feet, has no mane, and his body is covered with black hair, excepting
sometimes a few reddish yellow hairs upon his sides; in short, he
resembles him in nothing but in being exceedingly voracious. He was
unknown to the ancients, who had made no great progress into the north
of Europe. Olaus is the first author who mentions this animal and
from his prodigious gluttony he called him _gulo_. In Sclavonia he
afterwards obtained the name of _rosomak_, and in Germany _jerff_,
or _wildfras_, and the French travellers have called him _glouton_.
There are varieties in this species, as well as in that of the jackall,
which we shall speak of when we come to the particular history of those
animals, and shall only here observe, that those varieties, instead
of assimilating them with the hyæna, render them additionally a more
distinct species.
The civet has nothing in common with the hyæna but the glandular pouch,
under the tail, and the mane along the neck and back-bone. It differs
from the hyæna in figure and size, not being more than half as large;
his ears are short and covered with hair, whereas those of the hyæna
are long and naked; he has also short legs, and five toes upon each
foot, while the legs of the hyæna are long, and he has only four toes
upon each foot; nor does the civet dig up the earth in search for
dead bodies. From these differences these animals are easily to be
distinguished from each other.
With respect to the baboon, which is the _papio_ of the Latins, and
as we have before observed, has been mistaken for the hyæna, merely
from the ambiguity of names, which seems to have arisen from a passage
of Leo Africanus, and since copied by Marmol. "The _dabuh_ say
these authors, is of the size and form of the wolf; and scratches up
dead bodies from their graves." From which it was supposed to mean
the _dubbah_, or hyæna, although it is expressly stated in the same
passages that the _dubbah_ has hands and feet resembling those of
a man; a remark which, however applicable to the baboon, cannot be
applied to the hyæna.
From taking a view of the _lupus-marinus_ of Bellon, which Gesner has
copied, we might mistake it for the figure of the hyæna, to which it
bears a great resemblance; but his description corresponds not with our
hyæna, for he says, the _lupus-marinus_ is an amphibious animal which
feeds on fish, and has sometimes been seen on the coasts of the British
ocean; besides this author says nothing of the peculiar characteristics
which distinguish the hyæna from all other animals. It is possible
that Bellon, prepossessed with the notion that the civet was the hyæna
of the ancients, has given the figure of the real one under the name
of _lupus-marinus_, for so striking and singular are the characters
of that animal, that it is hardly possible to be deceived in them; he
is, perhaps, the only quadruped that has four toes upon each foot.
Like the badger he has an aperture under the tail, which does not
penetrate into the body; his ears are long, straight, and naked; his
head is shorter and more square than that of the wolf; his legs are
longer, especially the hind ones; his eyes are placed like those of
the dog; the hair of his body and mane is of a dark grey, with a small
intermixture of yellow and black, and disposed all along in waves,
and though in size he equals the wolf, yet he has, nevertheless, a
contracted appearance.
This wild and solitary animal resides in the caverns of mountains,
the clefts of rocks, or in dens, which he forms for himself under
the earth. Though taken ever so young he is not to be tamed; he is
naturally ferocious. He lives like the wolf, by depredation, but he
is more strong and daring. He sometimes attacks men, and darts with a
ferocious resolution on all kinds of cattle; he follows the flocks,
and even breaks down the sheep-folds in the night to get at his prey.
His eyes shine in the dark, and it is asserted that he sees better
by night than day. All naturalists who have treated of this animal,
except Kæmpfer, say, that his cry resembles the noise of a man who is
vomiting, while the latter asserts it to be like the lowing of a calf.
He defends himself against the lion, stands in no awe of the panther,
and attacks the ounce, which is incapable of resisting him. When at a
loss for prey he scrapes up the earth with his feet, and tears out the
carcasses of animals and men, which in the countries he inhabits are
promiscuously buried in the fields. He is found in almost all the hot
climates of Africa and Asia, and it is probable that the animal called
_farasse_, at Madagascar, which resembles the wolf in figure, but is
larger and stronger, is the same animal.
Of this animal more absurd stories have been told than of any other.
The ancients have gravely written that the hyæna is alternately male
and female; that when it brings forth, suckles and rears its progeny,
it remains as a female the whole year, but the year following it
resumes the functions of the male, and obliges its companion to submit
to those of the female. The circumstance which gave rise to this fable
is plainly the orifice under the tail, in both males and females,
independently of the organs of generation peculiar to both sexes,
and which are the same in the hyæna as in all other animals. It has
also been affirmed that this animal could imitate the human voice,
remember the names of shepherds, call upon, fascinate, and render
them motionless; that he can terrify shepherdesses, cause them to
forget and neglect their flocks, to be distracted in love, &c. All this
might surely happen without the intervention of the hyæna! But I shall
conclude here, to avoid the reproach which has been cast upon Pliny,
that of taking pleasure in compiling and relating absurd fables.