4 A Mad Wolf [1901 



old woman rush out brandishing a log of wood. I supposed at first 

 it was a domestic quarrel of the cook's, but as everybody in the 

 house was taking part in the fray, I went down into the yard to 

 see what the case really was, and found them hauling a wolf out 

 of the kitchen by a rope, which they had got round its neck, be- 

 labouring it the while with staves. The cook's boy was following 

 them with his hand badly bitten. It appears that the boy had been 

 left in charge of the stewpans, and, while he was watching them, 

 what he thought was a dog, but which was really a wolf, looked in 

 at the door. The boy turned to drive it out, when it sprang up at 

 him and bit him on the hands. He caught it, however, by the throat 

 (or rather, he afterwards explained, by the ears, which he said he 

 could not let go, thus illustrating the proverb) and fell on it, while 

 an old woman who was also there beat it with a log of wood. Then 

 others came, and the boy still holding fast, they got the rope round 

 its neck. When laid on the ground in the yard, the wolf pretended 

 to be dead, though he did not look much hurt, but all declared he 

 was mad and begged me to shoot him, and so reluctantly I did. He 

 died without a groan, and from first to last did not make a sound. 

 He was a fine dog-wolf, about the size of a collie dog, with reddish 

 legs, and altogether a good deal redder than European wolves are, 

 and a fine set of teeth. The boy was rather badly bitten, and after 

 having his wounds washed, we sent him straight to Cairo to the 

 Hydrophobic hospital. I cannot think the wolf was mad, as he was 

 fat and in fine condition. He had no foam at the mouth, nor a 

 haggard eye, nor any appearance of disease. I think rather, this 

 being their breeding time, when they are bolder than usual, he simply 

 followed his nose to a meal. We have often heard him lately howling 

 in the garden, and once at night in the yard, so he probably knew 

 his way about. The old woman, whose clothes had been torn and 

 her legs bitten, but not badly, at once when the wolf was dead took 

 some hairs from him to dress her wound with, and the heart was 

 kept for the boy to eat. I had the wolf skinned ; he was a powerful 

 beast, with immense muscles in the throat and great depth of chest. 

 There is at least one other in the garden; indeed, I hear one howling 

 as I write." 



N.B. Naturalists affirm that there are no true wolves in Egypt, 

 and the red colour of this one seems to show him to have been a 

 jackal of the large kind which frequents Egyptian gardens. I am, 

 however, certain that the true wolf is also found in the desert east 

 of the Nile, for I have several times seen them at close quarters. 

 The true wolf is a desert animal, and like other wolves, attacks 

 sheep, hovering round the Bedouin encampments for the purpose. 

 Suliman has sometimes suffered from their depredations just out- 



