VI HYiENA MEAT A LUXURY 



117 



them any alarm. On three occasions, two of which 

 were on bright moonHght nights, I actually saw 

 hyaenas right in amongst my oxen, and at first 

 thought they were dogs, as they were sniffing about 

 on the ground. Two of these hyaenas I shot. On 

 all these occasions my oxen did not pay the very 

 slightest attention to the hyaenas, and I cannot 

 therefore believe that these animals have a more 

 fetid or disagreeable smell than dogs. I remember 

 once shooting a hyaena in the Mababi country, close 

 to the permanent camp where my waggons stood all 

 through the dry season of 1879. Several waggons 

 belonging to Khama's people were standing close 

 by, and when Tinkarn, the headman of the party, 

 saw the dead hyaena he asked me if he and his 

 people might have it. When I inquired what they 

 wanted it for, they answered "To eat," and averred 

 that no other meat obtainable in the African veld 

 was equal to that of a fat hyaena. I gave them 

 the coveted carcase, and they ate it with every 

 appearance of satisfaction. These men were not 

 low savages, but Christianised Bechwanas, all of 

 whom could read and write. They had plenty of 

 good antelope meat, too, at the time, so that they 

 certainly ate the hyaena from choice. I have, how- 

 ever, never come across any other tribe of African 

 natives who would willingly eat the flesh of a 

 hyaena, their objection to it being that it is that of 

 an animal which eats the bodies of human beings. 

 This objection, however, would not apply to the 

 vast majority of hyaenas that live in the wilderness, 

 far from any human habitations. Hyaenas will 

 attack and kill old and worn-out oxen after they 

 have become very weak ; but I have never heard 

 of a case of an ox or a horse in good condition 

 being interfered with by these animals. They 

 often kill the small native cows of South- East 

 Africa, however, always tearing open their udders, 



