This animal in Egypt is called mangutia, but we shall adopt the name ichneumon ([fig. 172.]) given it by Aristotle, and others. It is as domestic in Egypt as the cat is in Europe; and is alike serviceable to destroy rats and mice. But its inclination for prey is much stronger and more violent, for it hunts and eats with the same avidity, birds, quadrupeds, serpents, lizards, and insects. It attacks every living creature, and feeds entirely on animal flesh; its courage is equal to the sharpness of its appetite, being neither intimidated by the anger of the dog, nor the malice of the cat; it even dreads not the bite of the serpent, but pursues, seizes, and kills them, however venomous. As soon as it begins to feel the effects of their venom, it immediately goes in search of antidotes, and particularly of a root which the Indians call by its name, and which, they say, is a most sure and powerful remedy against the bite of the viper or asp. It sucks the eggs of the crocodile, as well as those of fowls and birds; it also kills and eats the young crocodiles, though they are very strong even when scarcely come out of the shell; and as fable commonly precedes truth, it has been alleged that, in consequence of this antipathy, the ichneumon enters the body of the crocodile when he is asleep, and never quits him till it has devoured his entrails.
Naturalists have supposed that there are several kinds of ichneumons, because there are some larger, and of a different colour from others; but if we consider, that being often reared in houses, they must, like other domestic animals, undergo changes, we shall readily perceive that this diversity of colour and size only indicates simple varieties, not sufficient to constitute a separate species; especially as in the two ichneumons which I have seen alive, and in many stuffed skins I examined, I did not observe that the intermediate shades both of size and colour differed from the rest by any evident and constant character; and it only appears, that in Egypt, where the ichneumons may be said to be domestic, they are larger than those in India, where they are wild.
Nomenclators, who are never willing that a being should be only what it is, have greatly varied on the subject of the ichneumon. Linnæus first made it of the badger kind, and directly after of the ferret. Hasselquist, following the lessons of his master, also makes it a badger. Klein and Brisson have placed it in the weasel class, others in the otter, and some with the rat.[AS] I only quote these ideas to shew the want of consistency, and the contradictions, which are to be met with in what are called generic denominations, and which are generally false, arbitrary, vague, and equivocal.
[AS] Professor Cuvier classes it with the bear.
The ichneumon is fond of living by the sides of rivers. During the inundations it quits its habitation, and even seeks for prey near inhabited places. They walk without making any noise, and change their manner as occasion requires. Sometimes they carry their heads erect, foreshorten their bodies, and rise upon their hind-legs; at other times they creep and lengthen their bodies like a serpent. It often sits upon its hind-legs, and more often darts like an arrow upon its prey; its eyes are lively and full of fire; its physiognomy is beautiful, its body very agile, legs short, tail thick and very long, and its hair rough, and sometimes curled. Both male and female have a remarkable orifice, independent of the natural passages; a kind of pouch, in which an odoriferous liquor is secreted; and some have asserted that the ichneumon opens this pouch to refresh itself when too hot. Its nose is very sharp, and its mouth narrow, which prevents it from seizing any thing very large; but these wants are amply supplied by agility and courage. It very easily strangles a cat, though bigger and stronger than itself; it often fights with dogs, and however large commonly gets the better of them.
Their growth is very quick, and their lives but of short duration: they are very common throughout all the southern parts of Asia, from Egypt to Java; and are even to be met with in Africa, as far as the Cape of Good Hope; but they will not live and produce in our temperate climates; they are distressed by wind, and the frost destroys them; to avoid the one, and to counteract the effects of the other by warmth, they roll themselves up with their heads under their bellies. The ichneumon was much esteemed by the ancient Egyptians, and is still protected with much care upon account of the essential service it performs in the destruction of noxious animals, particularly the crocodiles, whose eggs it knows how to discover even in the sand, and which creatures would become very formidable, from their great multiplication, one female laying near five hundred eggs, if it were not that the ichneumons destroy them.
This animal is called by some travellers the genet of Madagascar, because it resembles the genet in colour, and some other affinities; but it is in general much smaller, and has not the odoriferous bag, which is an essential character belonging to that animal. As we were not certain as to this fact, not being able to procure one for dissection, we wrote to M. de Poivre, who had sent us the skin of a fossane stuffed, and who favoured us with the following answer:—Lyons, July 19, 1761. “The fossane which I brought from Madagascar is an animal whose manners are much like those of our marten. The inhabitants of the island assured me, that when the male is in heat it emits a very strong smell like musk. When I stuffed the skin which is in the royal gardens I did not discover any bag, nor did I find any odoriferous smell. I reared two similar animals, the one at Cochinchina, and another in the Phillippine Islands; they were both males; I had them very young, and kept them about, two or three months, in which time they had become pretty familiar. I never found any bag in the parts you speak of, but only observed that their excrements had the same smell as those of our marten. They eat flesh and fruits, but preferred the latter, and were exceedingly partial to bananas, which they devoured with voracity. This is a very wild animal, and difficult to tame; though taken when very young, yet it preserved the look and character of ferocity, which appeared to me somewhat extraordinary in an animal who feeds by preference on fruits. The eye of the fossane represents a large black globe, in comparison with the size of its head, which gives it a mischievous aspect.”