120 philosophical essays you must read in your life

Chapter 68

Chapter 4 Section 8 Hyena

[Russia] Shchedrin
The words describing hyenas are recorded in any zoology book.Its pointed mouth on the lower side does not indicate cunning, nor cunning, nor cruelty, and it can even be said to be cute.

It makes this good impression by its small, benevolent eyes.The eyes of other sharp-billed animals are clear, quick, and sparkling, and their eyes are cruel and ambitious.But its eyes are lazy, watery, kind and trustworthy.When Catholic priests want to search the conscience of believers, they often have such tender eyes.In addition, some officials who are trusted to transcribe the list of rewards worthy of congratulations in a top-secret manner, in order to give people hope and at the same time keep state secrets, smile at everyone, and they also have this kind of eyes.

Who would have thought that it was depicting the hyena, which has been notorious since ancient times!

Hyenas were considered supernatural animals in ancient times, and ancient people believed that they could perform magic.This view of the hyena still predominates among the natives of the countries in which these animals inhabit.Judging from the story written by Brahm, the local Arabs believed that eating hyenas would drive people crazy, and the magician used this method to harm the people he hated.In addition, the Arabs also believed that hyenas were nothing but magicians in disguise, who were humans during the day and turned into beasts at night, killing devout souls.

Obviously, these legends are not close to reason, just like a fable I heard from a merchant woman on the south bank of the Moscow River. She said: I know a hyena that becomes a man by day. When it shines, pick up a pen - in the hyena fashion - and write a newspaper article... What absurdity!

When it comes to the hyena, however, Bram's assessment is much more lenient, though he sees no particular virtue in it.But generally speaking, beasts have neither virtue nor vice, they only have nature.According to Brahm, the hyena's bark was not as annoying as it was said to be—he was often pleased to hear it.The bark of the spotted hyena, on the other hand, does have a quality which "makes any religious soul, with a vivid imagination, apt to regard it as the dreadful laughter of the devil and his hellish companions."So, if you read the imperial papers and hear "what could be considered a devil's laugh," then you know it's a spotted hyena, and that variety of the hyena is the most dangerous and hateful of all hyenas.

Bram didn't say anything about this kind of hyena, but he said in summary that his story about hyenas was somewhat confusing.Apparently the confusion had arisen precisely because the transformative hyenas seemed to have escaped from him.Happily it did not escape the eye of the merchant woman on the south bank of the Moskva I mentioned earlier, who undoubtedly saw the hyena with her own eyes.

"Look at it—how cute!" she said, "and it started whining ha ha... ha ha, ha ha, and then suddenly whined again... Lord, save it, forgive it!"

Hyenas, however, can squeal obnoxiously, stink, and whimper as they eat, Brahm said.The hyena's yelling, ha-ha-hah, would quite naturally give the superstitious man the impression that the devil in hell is mad—and it is no doubt just such a variety he was referring to.Besides, this hyena only attacks the weak, sleeping and defenseless (of course, it is better if the victim is bound), and besides, it will often carry away children from the house.Generally speaking, children are a favorite meal of the transforming hyena.At night, it sneaks into the residence of the Mambuk people (one of the Kafer tribe), quietly walks past the calf, and drags the child away from the sleeping mother.

It is not particularly difficult to catch hyenas alive, so animal breeders buy them at a low price and put them in cages for everyone to watch.The hyena in the cage lay there for hours on its side, like a stubby log.Later, he jumped up suddenly, looked at everyone with an indescribably stupid expression, and rubbed his body on the grid, and the bone-piercing scream followed.

However, according to another scholar, hyenas are as cowardly as treacherous.Once, when he spent the night with a group of friends by the Azure River, a hyena suddenly appeared next to the campfire, and it sang its heart-breaking song.But when the friends gathered together laughed and answered the song, the uninvited guest was terrified and ran away immediately.On another occasion, returning from a midnight visit in the city of Senal, he encountered a rather large herd of hyenas in one of the town's streets.Ironically, the only way to disperse them is to throw a small stone.

Hyenas can even be tamed.Of course, it is not pleasant to do this, but such attempts are not unprofitable for the detailed study of the habits of this animal.It's also fairly easy to tame!Just beating and cold showers are essential.Bram said that the hyenas tamed in this way jumped up immediately when they saw him, barking happily, first hopping around beside him, putting their front paws on his shoulders, smelling Smell the face, and finally put up the tail straight up, protruding the rolled intestines an inch and a half to two inches from the anus.In short, here, as everywhere, man has won.It's just that the protruding intestines are somewhat unpleasant.

But the joy of seeing a hyena...it varies...

But what does this story really mean, and what is the purpose of writing it?Perhaps, readers will ask me.My purpose in telling this story is to show in an intuitive way that "human nature" will always and must win over "hyena nature".

Sometimes we feel that "hyena nature" is going to fill the whole world, expanding to the left and right, and it is about to crowd out all living things.This hallucination did not happen by accident. There were hahas and screams all around, and shouts from the dark depths that aroused hatred, quarrels, and strife.All living things kowtow to the nameless terror, goodness bows its knees, beauty bows its knees, humanity bows its knees!Under the weight of this disturbing thought all inner activity was suspended, like an impenetrable veil, everything was covered forever by hatred, slander, hyena sex!

However, this is an absurd idea. "Humanity" never really bows to its knees, but continues to burn beneath the ashes that are temporarily sprinkled with "hyena-ness."

Hereafter it will not bow its knees, nor cease burning—never!For human nature will win if only one can realize that the "hyena spirit" is absolutely incapable of working its magic to create unreasonable and vicious prejudice, so that heart and mind will be awakened.Once this awareness has arisen, there is no longer any need to develop the "hyena spirit".Why?Because after all it will not cease to stink, and there are many troubles in cultivating it, it will naturally fall into the abyss, and finally, until the sea swallows it up, and history swallows it up.

【Together with you】

In the omnipotence of human nature, everyone has a little bit of "hyena nature", ambiguous in misery, provocative in gentle, cunning in cuteness... "Hyena nature" is like a ghost that appears carelessly , hiding in a dark corner on weekdays, will jump out when inadvertently, waving the inappropriate sharp teeth noisily, revealing the gloomy and gloomy side of human nature.

In this regard, everyone should use a vigilant third eye to maintain a clear awareness of "hyena nature".We do not envy fortunes which we consider hopeless.

(End of this chapter)