70 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



ing these sleeping-sickness camps, and each night enter- 

 ing them, bursting into the huts and carrying off and eating 

 the dying people. To guard against them each little group 

 of huts was inclosed by a thick hedge; but after a while 

 the hyenas learned to break through the hedges, and con- 

 tinued their ravages; so that every night armed sentries had 

 to patrol the camps, and every night they could be heard 

 firing at the marauders. 



The men thus preyed on were sick to death, and for 

 the most part helpless. But occasionally men in full vigor 

 are attacked. One of Pease's native hunters was seized 

 by a hyena as he slept beside the camp-fire, and part of 

 his face torn off. Selous informed me that a friend of his, 

 Major R. T. Coryndon, then administrator of Northwestern 

 Rhodesia, was attacked by a hyena but two or three years 

 ago. At the time Major Coryndon was lying, wrapped in 

 a blanket, beside his wagon. A hyena, stealthily approach- 

 ing through the night, seized him by the hand, and dragged 

 him out of bed; but as he struggled and called out, the 

 beast left him and ran off into the darkness. In spite of his 

 torn hand the major was determined to get his assailant, 

 which he felt sure would soon return. Accordingly, he 

 went back to his bed, drew his cocked rifle beside him, 

 pointing toward his feet, and feigned sleep. When all 

 was still once more, a dim form loomed up through the 

 uncertain light, toward the foot of the bed; it was the rav- 

 enous beast returning for his prey; and the major shot and 

 killed it where it stood. 



A few months ago a hyena entered the outskirts of 

 Nairobi, crept into a hut, and seized and killed a native 

 man. At Nairobi the wild creatures are always at the 

 threshold of the town, and often cross it. At Governor 

 Jackson's table, at Government House, I met Mr. and 

 Mrs. Sandiford. Mr. Sandiford is managing the railroad. 

 A few months previously, while he was sitting, with his 

 family, in his own house in Nairobi, he happened to ask 

 his daughter to look for something in one of the bedrooms. 



