The edition of “Natural Magick,” by John Baptist Porta, from which we have made these extracts, is a somewhat late one,[49] as the preface begins:—“Courteous Reader,—If this work made by me in my youth, when I was hardly fifteen years old, was so generally received, and with so great applause, that it was forthwith translated into many Languages, as Italian, French, Spanish, Arabick; and passed through the hands of incomparable men; I hope that now coming forth from me that am fifty years old, it shall be more dearly entertained. For when I saw the first fruits of my Labours received with so great Alacrity of mind, I was moved by these good Omens, and therefore have adventured to send it once more forth, but with an Equipage more Rich and Noble. From the first time it appeared it is now thirty-five years, and (without any derogation of my Modesty be it spoken) if ever any man laboured earnestly to disclose the secrets of Nature it was I.”[50] After nearly forty years, therefore, of reflection, observation, and criticism he feels that his medical hints on this subject of antipathy have borne the test of time, and may well take their place amongst the other secrets of Nature divulged for the benefit of humanity. The hyæna was held to possess the power of counterfeiting man’s speech, and of turning the gift to profitable account by going up at night to a shepherd’s or woodman’s hut and calling out the man’s name.[51] Upon the man’s going forth to see who wanted him, he was promptly torn to pieces. The Manticora also, according to Juba, possessed this uncanny power of imitating human speech, and turned its conversational powers to the same treacherous use. It was also held that if a hyæna made a circuit three times round any animal its victim lost all power of escape, and could not stir a foot. According to some ancient writers the animal had a stone called hyænia in its eye, and this being placed under a man’s tongue imparted to him the gift of prophecy. Aristotle taught that the eyes of this creature could change colour a thousand times a day, and this is but a sample of many other curious and absurd stories concerning the beast. Sir Gardner Wilkinson mentions a strange fancy believed in by the Abyssinians that a race of people who inhabited their country had the power of changing their form at pleasure, being sometimes men and at others hyænas.