xvin THE HY^INA 325 



our disappearance. The curious weird howls of these brutes were 

 heard throughout the night close to the tent-door, but they never 

 attacked our goats, neither did we ever lose a fowl through their 

 depredations ; they were simply scavengers. 



The early traveller James Bruce, who discovered the source of 

 the Blue Nile (1773), had a peculiar respect for hyaenas, which he 

 considered to be dangerous. They are so much despised, that 

 during the great hunts of Central Africa, should any of these 

 useful beasts be killed, it is the custom for the women of the 

 village to visit the bodies, and each administers to the carcase one 

 blow with a stick, in derision of the cowardly character it bore 

 when alive. 



