ADVENTURES WITH HYENAS. 115 



excursions, had been attacked the night before my last visit, the 

 town absolutely carried by storm, notwithstanding defences nearly 

 six feet high of branches of the prickly tulloh, and two donkies, 

 whose flesh these animals are particularly fond of, carried off, in 

 pite of the efforts of the people. We constantly heard them close 

 *o the walls of our own town at nights ; and on a gate being left 

 partly open, they would enter and carry off any unfortunate animal 

 that they could find in the streets." 



With this strong desire for food, approaching to the boldness of 

 the most desperate craving, the hyaena, although generally fearful 

 of the presence of man, is an object of natural terror to the African 

 traveller. Bruce relates, that one night in Maibsha, in Abyssinia, 

 he heard a noise in his tent ; and getting up from his bed, saw two 

 large blue eyes glaring upon him. It was a powerful hyasna, who 

 had been attracted to the tent by a quantity of candles, which he 

 had seized upon, and was bearing off in his mouth. He had a 

 desperate encounter with the beast, but succeeded in killing him. 

 In the neighborhood of the ruins of those cities on the northern 

 coast of Africa, which, in ancient times, were the abodes of wealth 

 and splendor, and witnessed the power of the Ptolemies and 

 Caesars, the hysena is a constant resident, and increases the sense 

 of desolation by the gloominess of his habits. At Ptolemeta, where 

 there are many remains of former architectural magnificence, the 

 fountains which were constructed for the accommodation of an enor- 

 mous population are now useless, except to the wandering Arab, 

 and to the jackal and hyaena, who stray amongst these ruins after 

 sunset, to search for water at the deserted reservoirs.* Seldom dees 

 the hyaena molest the traveller in these solitudes ; but his howl, or 

 the encounter of his fierce and sullen eye, is always alarming. 

 Captain Beechey says, " although we had very frequently been dis- 

 turbed by hyaenas, we never found that familiarity with their 

 howl, or their presence, could render their near approach an un- 

 important occurrence ; and the hand would instinctively find its 

 way to the pistol, before we were aware of the action, whenever 

 eitner of .hese interruptions obtruded themselves closely upon us, 



Beechey. 



10 



