CH. Ill] HYENAS 61 



weight -bit it severely, and delayed its flight so that 

 it was killed. During the iirst few w^eeks of our trip I 

 not infrequently heard hyenas atler nightfall, but saw 

 none. Kcrniit, however, put one out of a ravine or dry 

 creek-bed — a donga, as it is locally called— and though 

 the brute had a long start he galloped after it and 

 succeeded in running it down. The chase was a long 

 one, for twice the hyena got in such rocky country that 

 he almost distanced his pursuer ; but at last, after 

 covering nearly ten miles, Kermit ran into it in the 

 open, shooting it from the saddle as it shambled along 

 at a canter growling with rage and terror. I would not 

 have recognized the cry of the hyenas from what I had 

 read, and it was long before I heard them laugh. Pease 

 said that he had only once heard them really laugh. On 

 that occasion he was watching for lions outside a Somali 

 zareba. Suddenly a leopard leaped clear over the 

 zareba, close beside him, and in a few seconds came 

 flying back again, over the high thorn fence, with a 

 sheep in its mouth ; but no sooner had it landed than 

 the hyenas rushed at it and took away the sheep, and 

 then their cackling and shrieking sounded exactly like 

 the most unpleasant kind of laughter. The normal 

 death of very old lions, as they grow starved and feeble 

 — unless they are previously killed in an encounter with 

 dangerous game like buffalo — is to be killed and eaten 

 by hyenas : but of course a lion in full \'igour pays no 

 heed to hyenas, unless it is to kill one if it gets in 

 the way. 



During the last few decades, in Africa, hundreds of 

 white hunters, and thousands of native hunters, have 

 been killed or wounded by lions, buffaloes, elephants, 

 and rhinos. All are dangerous game ; each species has 

 to its gruesome credit a long hst of mighty hunters 



