e untutored Indian,"
who believes that the faithful companion of his laborious mortal career
will accompany him into the everlasting regions; and, indeed, the idea
that animals possess actually an inferior soul, and that, maltreated as
they are on earth, they too have their appropriate heaven, has by many
been considered a speculation less superstitious than truly philosophical.

The miraculous circumstance of Balaam's _Ass_ being empowered to behold
that startling apparition which his rider's eyes were holden so that he
could not see, may have originated the superstition that animals behold
spirits when they are invisible to man. _Horses_, from frequently starting
at no apparent cause, have thus been placed amongst the seers. In the
Highlands it is deemed lucky to meet a horse; but, according to Virgil,
the sight of one of these animals was ominous of war, the reason for which
may be found in a horse being as a martial animal dedicated to the god of
war. The Persians, Armenians, and other ancient nations sacrificed horses
to the sun. Tacitus says the Suevi maintained white horses in the several
woods at the public charge, to draw omens from them; and there are to this
day vestiges in England of some superstition relative to white horses, and
of supposed Danish origin.

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