Hyena and Bonnacon.


The hyena should not be eaten because it is dirty and has two natures, male and female. Both sexual organs are clearly shown. It dwells in the tombs of the dead and devours human bodies. Its spine is rigid and it must move its whole body in order to turn.

The hyena should not be eaten because it is dirty and has two natures, male and female. Both sexual organs are clearly shown. It dwells in the tombs of the dead and devours human bodies. Its spine is rigid and it must move its whole body in order to turn.

This is one of my all time favourite Medieval Bestiary depictions. I love that external spine. Wish I had one to wear.

Detail of miniature of a lioness, a crocote, and a bonnacon, Harley MS 3244, f. 41r.

Detail of miniature of a lioness, a crocote, and a bonnacon, Harley MS 3244, f. 41r.

The bonnacon is an Asian beast whose head is like a bull but his horns curl inwards so that they do not harm the victim. When the bonnacon is chased he expels dung which burns a wide area.

The bonnacon is an Asian beast whose head is like a bull but his horns curl inwards so that they do not harm the victim. When the bonnacon is chased he expels dung which burns a wide area.

Text Translation:

Of the hyena. There is an animal called the hyena, which inhabits the tombs of the dead and feeds on their bodies. Its nature is that it is sometimes male, sometimes female, and it is therefore an unclean animal. Since its spine is rigid, all in one piece, it cannot turn round except by turning its body right around. Solinus recounts many marvellous things about the hyena. First, it stalks the sheepfolds of shepherds and circles their houses by night, and by listening carefully learns their speech, so that it can imitate the human voice, in order to fall on any man whom it has lured out at night. The hyena also [imitates] human vomit and devours the dogs it has enticed with faked sounds of retching. If dogs hunting the hyena accidentally touch its shadow behind, they lose their voices and cannot bark. In its search for buried bodies, the hyena digs up graves. The sons of Israel resemble the hyena. At the beginning they served the living God. Later, addicted to wealth and luxury, they worshipped idols. For this reason the prophet compared the synagogue to an unclean animal: ‘My heritage is to me as the den of a hyena.’ (see Jeremiah, 12:8) Therefore those among us who are slaves to luxury and greed, are like this brute, since they are neither men nor omen, that is, neither faithful nor faithless, but are without doubt those of whom Solomon says: ‘A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways’; (James, 1:8) of whom the Lord says: ‘You cannot serve God and mammon.’ (Matthew, 6:24)

This beast has a stone in its eyes, called hyenia; anyone who keeps it under his tongue is believed to foretell the future. It is true that if the hyena walks three times around any animal, the animal cannot move. For this reason men declare that the hyena has magical properties. In a part of Ethiopia the hyena mates with the lioness; their union produces a monster, named crocote. Like the hyena, it too produces men’s voices. It never tries to change the direction of its glance but strives to see without changing it. It has no gums in its mouth. Its single, continuous tooth is closed naturally like a casket so that it is never blunted.

Of the bonnacon In Asia an animal is found which men call bonnacon. It has the head of a bull, and thereafter its whole body is of the size of a bull’s with the maned neck of a horse. Its horns are convoluted, curling back on themselves in such a way that if anyone comes up against it, he is not harmed. But the protection which its forehead denies this monster is furnished by its bowels. For when it turns to flee, it discharges fumes from the excrement of its belly over a distance of three acres, the heat of which sets fire to anything it touches. In this way, it drives off its pursuers with its harmful excrement.

Folio 11v – Ibex, continued. De yena; the hyena.

Comments

  1. says

    The Bonnacon gives brand new meaning to “spraying bullshit”. I wish more people knew about the Bonnacon, because ‘Bonnaconshit!” would be a grand descriptor of the level of shit spewed by a person.

  2. jazzlet says

    It would, especially as real bullshit is at least useful as a fertiliser, whereas this stuff is clearly very destuctive. … hmmm I wonder if there is a supersized version …

  3. says

    Pliny the Elder started it, in his Natural History, started in 77 C.E.:

    There are reports of a wild animal in Paeonia called the bonasus, which has the mane of a horse, but in all other respects resembles a bull; its horns are curved back in such a manner as to be of no use for fighting, and it is said that because of this it saves itself by running away, meanwhile emitting a trail of dung that sometimes covers a distance of as much as three furlongs (604 m), contact with which scorches pursuers like a sort of fire.”

    There’s never any mention of what it might eat. The same as other bulls, I suppose.

  4. says

    It could of course be a relative of the fabled Drop Bear and eat gum leaves on this continent. They’re loaded with flammable oils.

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