258 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



merely a patch of reeds or bush. Normally it was solitary, 

 but quantities assembled around any big dead beast. Ker- 

 mit rode down several, although sometimes, if the beast had 

 a long start, only after a good chase. Hyenas are noisy; 

 besides the usual questing cry, they at times cackle and 

 screech and more rarely laugh. 



They are queer creatures. Ordinarily they are scaven- 

 gers, feeding on carrion. Yet they occasionally kill mules, 

 cattle, donkeys, and young rhinoceros. Their jaws are so 

 powerful, their strength is so great, and they are so tough, 

 that only a number of big, fierce dogs can kill one. When 

 hungry they pounce on and carry off dogs. Yet when 

 hunted they are very cowardly. A big Airedale terrier, be- 

 longing to a ranchman we visited, would unhesitatingly 

 attack a hyena single-handed, and harass the beast so that 

 the hunter could come up and shoot it. To a man there is 

 absolutely no danger in hunting them; the utmost they will 

 do is to snap at a stick when wounded and at bay. They 

 have not a thousandth part of the fury and reckless prowess 

 of the leopard. Yet they are far more apt than the leopard 

 to prey on human beings, even full-grown men ; and in cer- 

 tain districts where they are bold and numerous it is dan- 

 gerous for any man to sleep alone in the open. Their at- 

 tacks are always made at night, with extreme caution, and 

 when the victim is sleeping. Usually they seize the face, 

 and we saw more than one native who had been frightfully 

 scarred in this manner, although the beast had been driven 

 off. An English officer. Major Coryndon, was once seized 

 by the hand by a hyena while he was sleeping in the open; 

 he struggled so that the beast left him and ran off into the 

 darkness; whereupon he lay down again with his loaded rifle 



