THE HYENA AND THE HUNTING DOG 259 



ready, and when his hungry assailant returned he shot It 

 dead. In Uganda, when we were passing through, the 

 hyenas had become confirmed man-eaters because of de- 

 vouring the innumerable natives who died of sleeping sick- 

 ness. They haunted the ghastly sick-camps into which the 

 officials gathered the sufferers. After a few experiments 

 they found that the dying men and women could offer little 

 resistance, and after nightfall they broke into their huts 

 and carried them off; and they grew steadily in numbers 

 and ferocity. It became necessary not only to build stiff 

 fences round the camps but to station strong guards of 

 soldiers in them, and every night there were repeated shots 

 fired in killing or driving away the marauders. 



In fact, the hyena is a singular mixture of abject coward- 

 ice and the utmost ferocity. Usually feeding on carrion, 

 and often hesitating to attack even the weakest animal if 

 it is unhurt and on its guard, the ravenous beast will, on oc- 

 casions, even when single but especially when in troops, as- 

 sail very formidable creatures. A troop has been known to 

 kill a half-grown rhinoceros which had returned to the body 

 of its mother, slain by hunters. Not only sheep and goats 

 but donkeys, mules, cattle, and dogs are at times destroyed. 

 In killing men, women, and especially children, a man- 

 eating hyena will penetrate big villages; one took a native 

 from a hut in Nairobi itself. When in troops they have been 

 known to seize animals that have been wounded by hunters, 

 and to attempt to stand off the hunters. We have never 

 known them in such a case actually to attack the hunters. 

 But under certain circumstances they do attack lions, 

 which seems quite as extraordinary. Ordinarily the hyenas 

 merely attend the lion at respectful distance, eager to get 



