310 LARGE GAME. CHAP. vi. 



In this case it is probable that the animal had become 

 a confirmed man-eater, and had to some extent overcome 

 its natural cowardliness, otherwise I should have been 

 surprised at the perseverance it displayed. Another 

 instance of the same kind is mentioned by Mr. Skertchly 1 

 as occurring on the West Coast. He says, 



" At three in the morning I heard a great outcry. On inquiring 

 the cause, I found that a hyena had entered a hut and seized an 

 infant sleeping in its mother's arms by the head, but being fright- 

 ened by the screams of the inmates, had dropped its prey and de- 

 camped. The poor little fellow was quite dead, its skull being 

 crushed in by the teeth of the monster." 



I remember one evening severely wounding a doe im- 

 palla, one of the most timid of antelopes, which, however, 

 I was unable to get from want of light, but as there was 

 no meat in camp, I followed it up the first thing next 

 morning, and before we had gone far on the track, which 

 was literally drenched in blood, we noticed the marks of a 

 hyena, and I gave up all hope of finding anything except 

 the bones, but ultimately we came to it, still alive 

 though unable to stand, and untouched, though the 

 hyena had absolutely gone within a yard of it, had, 

 indeed, walked round it, and then, seeing that it was 

 living, had slunk away, afraid to touch a harmless doe 

 antelope so wounded that it could not stir, so long as 

 breath remained in its body. 



Common as these hyenas are, it is very unusual to see 

 one, they being, like most animals of prey, night-prowlers, 

 and retiring to their holes at the earliest dawn. Regular 

 beaten paths lead to these burrows, along which they 

 invariably go, both when coming out and returning ; indeed, 



1 Dahomey as it is, by J. A. Skertchly, 331. 



