oil the Interio7- ^'the Deris of Living Hyatnas. 379 



1 had almost despaired of getting you the skeleton of a hysena, 

 when fortunately, on my march from the Pabool to Cheencholee, on 

 the 14th February 1826, I saw a large male and a female basking in 

 the sun, with a couple of good sized cubs tumbling about them. The 

 country is a table land, and perfectly open. The beasts were about 

 half a mile from the road. I was obliged to approach them without 

 disguise or concealment. As I neared them, the cubs disappeared in 

 the den, and the female walked slowly away ; but the male waited 

 very coolly until I got within a hundred yards of him, when a ball from 

 my gun brought him down. I had shot him through the shoulder, 

 and on running up to him found he had sufficient strength left to 

 move ; and fearful he would get into his den, distant only five paces, 

 I put a ball through his head. I regret this now very much, as it broke 

 the skull into fragments, and it will occasion you a good deal of trouble 

 to put them together again. My people had most of them passed on 

 to the new ground of encampment eight miles distant; and as it was get- 

 ting very hot, I did not think it necessary to dig out the cubs. The 

 hyaena family 1 fqund had been regaling themselves on the remains of 

 a jackass, some of whose bones, with the half putrified flesh on them, 

 were lying about. The rest of the animal was doubtless in the den, as 

 I pulled out from one of the passages a hind-leg and haunch, with part 

 of the flesh on it, which the hyaenas had been disabled from taking in- 

 to the recesses of the den, by the leg having stiffened into so angular a 

 form, as not to admit of its passing where the rock narrowed. 



I have to remark a very singular fact with respect to the habits of 

 these carrion beasts. It was evident from the accumulation of dung on 

 the same spot, in a hollow about ten feet from the entrance of the den, 

 and from this substance not being found in any other place, that these 

 beasts, young and old, resorted regularly to a chosen spot ; in short, 

 that they had thought it necessary, in their domestic arrangements, to 

 render a spot sacred to the goddess of filth. A very few words will 

 now close the hyaena's history. The beast I had killed was taken to 

 my tents, carefully skinned,, and the skin cured in the native way, by 

 being rubbed with turmeric and salt, and subsequently with thick acid 

 milk. The flesh was boiled off the bones ; and the skeleton, skin, and 

 some of the bones found in the several dens, were packed into a box ; 

 put on board the Pyramus, and directed to you, and I trust you will 

 receive this box almost as soon as you get my letter. I have omitted 

 to remark, that porcupines' quills are commonly found in hyenas' dens; 

 these animals, therefore, must be their prey. The hyenas, although 

 sometimes as large or larger than a stout mastiff, contrive to creep 

 along very narrow passages in their dens. I have farther only to re- 

 mark of the hyena, that it is a cowardly beast. It never attacks where 

 there is any risk ; and, when chased and driven to extremity, submits 

 to be killed almost without resistance. When the beast does bite, and 

 gets a fair hold, the power of the jaws is so great as to admit of their 

 fracturing any bone of a horse or an ox. 



(Signed) W. H. Sykes. 



