56 ANIMALS OF THE 



devour the leather harness, boots, and shoes, and 

 run off with what they have not time to swallow. 



They not only attack the living but the dead. 

 They scratch up with their feet the new-made 

 graves, and devour the corpse, how putrid so- 

 ever. In those countries therefore where they 

 abound, they are obliged to beat the earth over 

 the grave, and mix it with thorns, to prevent 

 the jackalls from scraping it away. They always 

 assist each other as well in this employment of 

 exhumation, as in that of the chase. While they 

 are at this dreary work, they exhort each other 

 by a most mournful cry, resembling that of chil- 

 dren under chastisement; and when they have 

 thus dug up the body, they share it amicably 

 among them. These, like all other savage ani- 

 mals, when they have once tasted of human flesh, 

 can never after refrain from pursuing mankind. 

 They watch the burying-grounds, follow armies, 

 and keep in the rear of caravans. They may be 

 considered as the vulture of the quadruped kind j 

 every thing that once had animal life, seems 

 equally agreeable to them ; the most putrid sub- 

 stances are greedily devoured ; dried leather, and 

 any thing that has been rubbed with grease, how 

 insipid soever in itself, is sufficient to make the 

 whole go down. 



They hide themselves in holes by day, and sel- 

 dom appear abroad till night-fall, when the jack- 

 all that has first hit upon the scent of some large 

 beast, gives notice to the rest by a howl, which 

 it repeats as it runs ; while all the rest, that are 

 within hearing, pack in to its assistance. The 



