HYÆNA, or Hiena, a four-footed beast. Its name is not to be met with in the Latin Text of the Old Testament, nor in the New; but the Hebrew Text of Leviticus1 reads, The daughter of the Hiena, Bath-Haïana, instead of Struthio, which we read in the Vulgate. The same name is to be found in several other places of the Hebrew Text, where it is generally translated Struthio, the Ostrich, though it is not very certain, that this is its true signification. See hereafter the Article OSTRICH.
It is certain that Bath-Haïana, or the daughter of the Hiena is a bird; Moses mentions it in his enumeration of such birds, the use whereof was prohibited. But the animal which is known to us by the name of Hiena, is a four-footed beast, almost as large as a Wolf, excepting that its legs are not so long. The hair of it is rough, and its skin spotted with divers colours. Hiena’s were formerly produced at Rome in the publick games, and they have been represented on some medals on the score of their rarity. It is an uncommon creature, which is scarce to be seen any where but in Egypt. Spanheim, who had copies of it engraved from medals, describes it with the head of a mastiff, with short triangular ears, a lion’s tail and feet, and hair spotted all over like a tyger’s.
Bochart, and Ludolphus in his History of Æthiopia maintain, that the Hyæna is in the Hebrew called Tzeboa2. Jeremiah speaks of it3 in chap. xii. 9. The import of the Vulgate is as follows: Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird. And the Septuagint; Mine heritage is unto me a cave of the Hiena. The Hebrew may very well bear the sense of the Vulgate; but Bochart affirms, that the word Hait, translated bird, signifies in general all sorts of wild beasts; and that Tzeboah, which is rendred tinged with divers colours, signifies the Hiena, so named in the sacred language on the score of its spots, and the variety of its hair.
Plin. l. viii. c. 30. l. xxviii. c. 8.Pliny speaks of the Hyæna, and describes it in a manner which seems fabulous. He says that it changes its sex every year, is one year male, and the next female; and that from its eyes are taken precious stones, from the name of this creature called Hyenea. Aristotle and Ælian say, that it makes dogs dumb with its shadows; that it imitates the speech of mankind, and deceives them, in order to draw them out of their houses, and devour them. They add, that it has feet like a man’s, and no Vertebræ in the neck.
Busbequius, in his travels to Amasia, relates several particulars of this animal. He says it is almost in the shape of a wolf, but not so tall. That its hair is like that of a wolf, except its being more bristling, and marked at certain distances with great black spots. It has no neck, but its head is fastened to the vertebræ or chine-bone of the back, so that it is forced to turn itself quite round, whenever it would look behind. It is very cruel and voracious; it drags dead bodies out of the grave, and carries them to its den. Instead of teeth, it has one continued bone in the jaw. It is said to imitate the voice of a man, and that by this means it often deceives travellers. Busbeq. Iter Amasian. p. 76.
As to the daughter of the Haïana, which is a bird, the use whereof is forbidden by Moses, the Scripture-account of it, which may lead us to some discovery of its species, is as follows: It appears by Job and Micah, that this was a mournful bird, which in its pinings used to make a great noise. I am a brother to dragons, or crocodiles, and a companion to the daughters of the Hyæna. IsaiahIsai. xiii. 21. Jerem. l. 39. and Jeremiah, speaking of the destruction of Babylon, and the state to which it was to be reduced, say, that it will seem as a retreat for wild beasts, for dragons, and the daughters of the Hyæna. Isaiah repeats the Isai. xxxiv. 13. Lament. iv. 3.same thing, speaking of the destruction of Bozra the capital of Edom. Lastly, Jeremiah in his Lamentations intimates, that this bird is extremely cruel. The dragons, or crocodiles, give suck to their young ones, but the daughter of my people is become as cruel as the daughter of the Hyæna in the wilderness.
It has been the opinion of several Interpreters, that this was the little or great owl, a melancholy, mournful, solitary bird, the cry whereof was piercing and disagreeable; but I do not know how they can accuse it of cruelty; I do not see that they reproach it with this defect. We have offered some conjectures on Isaiah xiii. 21, 22. to prove that the daughter of the Hyæna was the swan. The cruelty wherewith Jeremiah reproaches this bird, agrees very well with the ostrich, which forsakes, they say, its eggs and its young ones. But I find nothing in the Authors who have said any thing of this bird, which justifies its being mournful, noisy, of bad omen, but its belonging to the water, and its delighting in ruins and abandoned places.
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