256 HYENAS AND CHILDREN 



of a freshly-killed eland bull. A few yards away were a 

 circle of big fires, with thirty or forty natives talking and 

 laughing over their supper. 



Suddenly, in the very midst of the group, appeared 

 the gaunt form of a hyena, with its sides looking as if 

 they had been flattened by a spade. It seized the skin, and 

 was lost in the darkness, before any of the men had 

 recovered from their surprise. Indeed, the whole thing 

 hardly lasted longer than a flash of lightning. In a 

 moment, however, when they had recovered their senses, 

 they were all after it, dogs as well as men, lighted by 

 bundles of burning grass by way of torches. The trail 

 was easily found, as it had to drag the huge eland skin, 

 weighing at least forty pounds, in its mouth, but it was 

 already across the stream, three hundred yards away, 

 before the dogs came up. Then it dropped the skin 

 at once, without attempting to show fight, and galloped 

 off as fast as its legs would carry it. 



But they all knew the ways of hyenas well enough 

 to be sure that this one was certain to return again 

 before very long. So the dogs were tied up, and as there 

 was still plenty of time before the moon rose, Selous 

 took his rifle and waited under a bush outside the camp. 

 After some time he fancied he saw something coming 

 towards him, and when the creature was quite close he 

 fired. It was too dark to tell clearly what had happened, 

 but it seemed as if something fell, and then got up and 

 walked off. Shouting for the dogs to be unfastened and for 

 the Kaffirs to bring torches, Selous made ready to follow, 

 and the hyena was tracked to some long grass a hundred 

 yards away. It managed to beat off the attacks of 

 the dogs, and reached the river, where it stood in a pool 

 till an assegai from a Kaffir put an end to it, much to 

 the joy of the natives, for the hyena was a well-known 

 robber, and many were the goats and cattle that it had 

 stolen for dinner. 1 



1 Steedman's Wanderings, and Selous' Travels passim. 



