CHAPTER VI 



NOTES ON THE SPOTTED HY/ENA 



Character of hyaenas — Contrasted with that of wolves — Story 

 illustrating" the strength and audacity of a spotted hyi^na — How 

 a goat was seized and carried off — A mean trick — Boldness of 

 hyaenas near native villages — More suspicious in the 

 wilderness — Very destructive to native live stock — Will some- 

 times enter native huts — Giving an old woman to the hyaenas 

 — How the smelling out of witches benefited the hyaenas — 

 " Come out, missionary, and give us the witch" — Number of 

 hyaenas infesting Matabeleland in olden times — Trials for 

 witchcraft in Matabeleland — Food of hyaenas — Strength of 

 jaws — Charged by a wounded hyaena — Heavy trap broken up 

 — Killing hyaenas with set guns — Hy^na held by dogs — 

 Hyaena attacked by wild dogs — Pace of hyaenas — Curious 

 experience on the Mababi plain — The hyaena's howl — 

 Rhinoceros calf killed by hyaenas — Smell of hyaenas — Hyaena 

 meat a delicacy — Small cows and donkeys easily killed by 

 hyaenas — Size and weight of the spotted hyaena — Number of 

 whelps. 



It has always appeared to me that the qualities and 

 characteristics of the African spotted hyaena have 

 met with somewhat scant recognition at the hands 

 of writers on sport, travel, and natural history, for 

 this animal is usually tersely described as a cowardly, 

 skulking brute, and then dismissed with a few 

 contemptuous words. 



Yet I think that the spotted hyaena of Africa 

 is quite as dangerous and destructive an animal 

 as the wolf of North America, which is usually 

 treated with respect, sometimes with sympathy, 

 by its biographers, though I cannot see that 



98 



