36 MY SOMALI BOOK 



camels are not unknown. The low-down character 

 of the brute is manifest still more in his habit of taking 

 a meal by snatches from an animal which he is unable 

 or afraid to kill. Drake-Brockman {Mammals of 

 Somaliland) states, " They will often attack horses, 

 biting great pieces out of their hind- quarters." And 

 even human beings sleeping out in the open are liable 

 to be treated in similar fashion : I have seen several 

 Somali faces disfigured in ghastly fashion by the 

 passing bite of a hyaena ; and small children are some- 

 times carried off. In fact, if he had the courage of his 

 opinion, that mankind, like any other creature, is 

 meat, I have no doubt that his man-eating proclivities 

 would be far more notorious than the casual evil- 

 doings of lion or tiger. 



My personal experiences of the waraba will be set 

 down in due course ; I have said enough here to show 

 that while essentially a coward he is vermin of a 

 dangerous and destructive type, and should be shot 

 at sight, without any scruple on account of the good 

 his scavenging propensities may do. Somaliland is 

 not lacking in other scavengers, furred and feathered. 

 The smaller striped hyaena (Somali didhar) is much 

 less abundant, though probably commoner than is 

 often supposed, as it is shyer and less given to prowling 

 round zaribas, and therefore less in evidence. It is 

 identical with the Indian species, but appears to be 

 decidedly more aggressive here than in India. My 

 shikari told me that it occasionally develops a pleasing 

 habit of running amok amongst a herd of sheep or 

 goats, killing a dozen or more from sheer lust of 

 slaughter. 1 hardly credited this story at the time. 



