Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/437

421 H Y B H Y B 421 .animal is excited, changes into what has been compared to demoniac laughter, and hence the name of &quot; laughing hyrena,&quot; by which it is also known. The food of those creatures consists chiefly of carrion, and they thus perform a highly useful service in hot countries by devouring the remains of dead animals which might otherwise pollute the &amp;lt;air. So ravenous, however, are they that even the bodies of the buried dead are not safe from their attacks, their power ful claws enabling them to gain access to the newly interred bodies in the Eastern cemeteries, which they are said habit ually to frequent. They also feed on the flesh of animals, which they hunt in packs. When driven by hunger they have thus been frequently known to enter villages by night and to carry off such domestic animals as they might chance to fin .1. Bruce, the African traveller, states that everywhere in Abyssinia they were a plague. &quot; Gonrlar,&quot; he says, &quot; was full of them from the time it turned dark till the dawn. In short, the hyaena was the plague of our lives, the terror of our night walks, the destruction of our mules and asses, which above all others are his favourite food.&quot; Although, in proportion to its size, possessing probably the most powerful teeth and jaws in the whole mammalian series, the pusillanimity of the hyaena is such as to prevent its attacking animals greatly inferior to itself in strength. The its mother s side. By persistent trapping and shooting, its numbers have now been considerably reduced, with the result, however, of making it, like the hippopotamus of the same regions, exceedingly wary, so that it is not readily caught in any trap with which it has had an opportunity of becoming acquainted. Like the northern species, the FIG. 1. Striped Hyaena. Arab, for this reason, holds it in contempt ; and, when he condescends to hunt the hyaena, lie does not waste his ammunition upon it, but runs it down with dogs. It has usually been regarded as untameable ; this, however, is not the case, for when properly trevtecl in captivity, it has been known to exhibit the greatest docility and attachment to its keepers ; and Colonel Sykes states that in certain dis tricts of Central India where those creatures abound they are as susceptible of domestication as ordinary dogs. The Spotted Hyaena (Hya-na crocata] takes the place of the striped species in the southern half of the African con tinent, to which it is confined. It resembles the other in size, but differs from it considerably in appearance, the stripes of the one being replaced by dark brown spots on a yellowish ground in the other, while in the &quot; tiger-wolf,&quot; as this species is called at the Cape, the mane is much less distinct. According to Schweinfurth, who mtit with it in the heart of Africa, it is a much more powerful and savage animal than the northern form. Although averse to hunt ing living prey, it takes to the chase when carrion is not to be had, and the same traveller was on one occasion startled by a spotted hyaena which darted past him, like lightning, in pursuit of an antelope. At the Cape it was formerly very common, and occasionally committed great havoc among the cattle, while it did not hesitate to enter the Kaffre dwellings at night and carry off the child sleeping by FIG. 2. Spotted Uya-iia. spotted hyaenu 1ms been tamed, and has occasionally been trained to take the place of the dog. Its skin ex hibits a considerable variety of colour and marking, and Schweinfurth found many skins in use among the Niam- niams of Central Africa, in the form of aprons. The brown hyaena (Ilycena ntfa) is also a native of South Africa. Although hyaenas are now confined to the warmer regions of the Old World, their fossil remains show that they had a much more northerly range during Tertiary times. Abund ant remains of a larger species than any now living have been found in the caves of England, France, and German}. This species, known as the cave hyaena (Hyaena spelcea), is supposed to have been most nearly allied to the spotted hyaena of South Africa, but does not appear to have extended farther south than the middle of Europe. Remains which have been doubtfully identified as belonging to the striped species have also been found in the south of France, and others in Sicily and Algeria, undoubtedly belonging to. the spotted form of South Africa, which must thus have had a much more northerly extension in Tertiary times. No remains of tho hyaena are known to occur in the New World. HYBLA is the name of several cities in Sicily. A Sicilian goddess was named Hyblnea (Pans. v. 23. 6) ; hence doubtless the name was so common. The Hybla of which we hear most was founded by the Megarians, about the year 726 B.C., and is probably the same as Megara Ilyblaea. For some time it was a flourishing city ; a century after its foundation it founded in its turn the colony of Selinus. But about the year 481 B.C. it was completely destroyed by Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse. The mass of the inhabitants were sold as slaves ; the richer were transported to Syra cuse and there admitted as citizens. Among these was Epicharmus of Cos, who had been brought up in Megara. During the Athenian expedition to Sicily, Lamachus -urged that they should occupy the deserted site. It must there fore have had a fine harbour, whence we may consider that it probably lay beside the modern city of Agosta. A small settlement seems afterwards to have grown up on the site. An older city called Hybla, belonging to the native Siculi, lay not far off on the southern slope of Mount Etna, near the river Symajthus. It is mentioned in the history of the Second Punic War ; and in the time of Cicero ( Vcrr., iii. 43) it was a flourishing place. It is exceedingly difficult to