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In an article headed I think " Fanciful Realities," by " Stranger," 

 in one of the early volumes of the Indian Sporting Review the rider 

 is made to turn from instead of with, the hygeiia as it doubled ; the 

 reason being that the beast always doubles in a figure of 8, there- 

 fore that the horse would meet him in the next turn ; I have never 

 tried this, nor do I think I shall if I have another chance of spear- 

 ing one of these animals. It is the most cowardly beast I know, 

 and does not I think show so much fight as a pariah dog under 

 similar circumstances would. Most of the hyaenas I have seen in 

 captivity have been exceedingly gentle ; one I remember that ran 

 loose with some greyhounds of the owner's was fed almost entirely 

 upon cocoanuts. I have often heard them accused of doing damage 

 in sugar-cane fields, but with what truth I know not. 



The most ludicrous instances of animal cowardice I have 

 ever seen have been displayed by hyaenas. Once while with two 

 friends beating a hill for hog, a large hyaena broke past us ; in 

 despair of more noble game we rode at and, after a long and fast 

 run, I had slightly speared the ungainly beast ; hardly drawing 

 blood and merely " ruffling the feathers" so to speak, when one of 

 the other horses rolled over with his rider in the black cotton 

 ground we were then crossing : the rider lost his rein, and the Arab, 

 an old Kamptee hog-hunter, picked himself up and forthwith pur- 

 sued the hyeena, whose abject fear and efforts to escape, as he 

 shuffled along with tail between his legs and quarters more tucked 

 in and drooped than ever, when the noble old horse bit at them, 

 made him look the most miserable creature I have ever seen and a 

 wonderful contrast to the old Arab, who, with ears laid well back 

 and tail aloft, pursued the enemy at a long trot, every now and then 

 trying to get it under one of his fore-feet. 



Another case was nearly as illustrative of the faint-heartedness 

 of the animal. Shortly after daybreak, I had shot' a bear that died 

 almost immediately ; ere long a large hyaena blundered up the 

 same path the bear had taken. I did not wish to waste a shot on 

 him, and he stumbled on for some distance in the vacant-looking 

 and undecided way of his race ; suddenly having caught the scent 

 of blood or dead flesh he became a different and rather fine-looking 

 creature, as he rushed, with head and tail well up, the latter waving 



