Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew AnglicusBartholomaeus, Anglicus, active 13th century
History
Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus
Bartholomaeus, Anglicus, active 13th century
Civilization, Medieval; Science, Medieval
The hyena is a cruel beast like to the wolf in devouring and gluttony,
and reseth on dead men, and taketh their carcase out of the earth, and
devoureth them. It is his kind to change sex, for he is now found
male, and now female, and is therefore an unclean beast, and cometh to
hoveys by night, and feigneth man's voice as he may, for men should
trow that it is a man. Pliny saith: It is said he is one year male and
another female. And she bringeth forth her brood without male, as the
common people trow. But Aristotle denieth that. And hath the neck of
the adder, and the ridge of an elephant, and may not bend but if he
bear all the body about. And herds tell that among stables, he
feigneth speech of mankind, and calleth some man by his own name, and
rendeth him when he hath him without. And he feigneth oft the name of
some man, for to make hounds run out, that he may take and eat
them.... And his shadow maketh hounds leave barking and be still, if
he come near them. And if this beast hyena goeth thrice about any
beast, that beast shall stint within his steps. Pliny saith that the
hyena hateth the panther. And it is said that if both their skins be
hanged together, the hair of the panther's skin shall fall away. This
beast hyena fleeth the hunter, and draweth toward the right side, to
occupy the trace of the man that goeth before: and if he cometh not
after, he telleth that he goeth out of his wit, or else the man
falleth down off his horse. And if he turn against the hyena, the
beast is soon taken, as magicians tell. And also witches use the heart
of this beast and the liver, in many witchcrafts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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