The _Hyaena_ has been the subject of strange fables: its neck was supposed
to be jointless, consisting but of one bone, and considered of great
efficacy in magical preparations; and the Arabs to this day, when they
kill this fierce animal, bury its head, lest it should be made the element
of some charm against them. It was believed to possess the power of
changing its sex annually; to be able to fascinate shepherds by its eyes
and render them motionless, and its cognomen, "_Laughing_" is, of course,
derived from the idea of its being able to imitate the human voice.

The ancients believed that if a man encountered a _Wolf_, and the animal
first fixed its eyes upon him, he was deprived for ever of the power of
speech: connected with these ferocious brutes is the fearful superstition
of the _Lycanthropos_, _Were-wulf, _Loup-garou,_ or _Man-wolf_. "These
_were-wolves_," says Verstegan, "are certain sorcerers, who having
anointed their bodies with an ointment they make by the instinct of the
devil, and putting on a certain enchanted girdle, do not only unto the
view of others seem as wolves, but to their own thinking have both the
shape and nature of wolves so long as they wear the said girdle; and they
do dispose themselves as very wolves, in worrying, and killing, and waste
of human creatures." The Germans had a similar superstition regarding
wolves, and the same respecting the wild boar; and with these let us
compare the British belief, that warlocks and weird women possess the
power of transforming themselves into hares, cats, &c.

_Swine_, which are strangely uneasy in or against tempestuous weather, are
believed to see the wind. In some parts of Great Britain it is a popular
belief that, on commencing a journey, if a sow and pigs be met it will
prove successful, but if a sow only crosses the road, the traveller, if he
cannot pass, must ride round about it, otherwise ill luck will attend him.