vi SUMMARY JUSTICE 103 



hind-quarters on a flat granite rock, close to where 

 my cart was standing. I then made my bed on the 

 ground close to the flat rock, and, as the moonlight 

 was so bright, never troubled to surround my camp 

 with any kind of fence. Pulling the blanket over 

 my head, I soon went fast asleep. During the night 

 I woke up, and was astonished to find that it was 

 dark. This I soon saw was owing to a complete 

 eclipse of the moon. When the shadow had passed, 

 and it once more became light, I found that the 

 choice piece of antelope meat which I had placed 

 on the stone close behind my head was gone, and I 

 have no doubt that it had been carried off by a 

 hyaena during the eclipse of the moon. 



Hyaenas are always far bolder and more 

 dangerous in the neighbourhood of native villages 

 than they are in the uninhabited wilderness.' 



In the year 1872 a Bushman Hottentot who had 

 shot a Kafir in cold blood, was beaten to death with 

 clubs by friends of the murdered man close to where 

 my waggon was standing near the Jomani river, in a 

 wild, uninhabited part of Eastern Matabeleland. I 

 did not know anything about this summary adminis- 

 tration of justice until it was over, as it took place at 

 the waggons of some Griqua hunters who were 

 camped near me. The body of the Hottentot was 

 then dragged to a spot less than three hundred 

 yards from my waggon, and quite close to the Griqua 

 encampment. That night several hyaenas laughed 

 and cackled and howled round the corpse from dark 

 to daylight, but they never touched it. On the 

 second night they once more left it alone, but on 

 the third they devoured it. I do not know why 

 these hyaenas waited until the third night before 

 making a meal off the body of this dead Hottentot, 

 but I imagine that it was because they were hyaenas 

 of the wilderness, unaccustomed to, and therefore 

 suspicious of the smell of a human being. I have 



