chap. vi. LEOPARDS. 309 



mutilated, while they slept, in the most horrible way ; 

 their noses wanting, the whole mouth and lips torn away, 

 or half a cheek gone, — for it is curious that it is the face 

 which always suffers, possibly because the rest of the body 

 is rolled up in the blanket natives invariably wear, and is 

 not exposed. It is commonly said that a man who snores 

 runs more danger than one who does not, as the brute 

 selects him, feeling sure that he is asleep. I have never 

 had a case in my own camp, nor has one ever occurred 

 when I have been present, but I have seen a boy who had 

 been dreadfully bitten in the face only a few days previ- 

 ously. Shaw 1 mentions no less than forty instances in a 

 few months, and within his own knowledge, of wolves, as 

 hyenas are locally called, taking youths and young chil- 

 dren, and even adds that they prefer human food, passing 

 by calves to take children. He gives two examples, one 

 of which may be interesting : — 



" The first I shall mention is that of Dapa's great-grandson, about 

 ten years of age. The wolf had previously seized a younger brother 

 and torn away a part of his face, Another night he came into the 

 house and took a second, and carried him completely off, of whom 

 nothing more than a fragment was found. On his third visit he 

 seized the lad just mentioned by the left shoulder. The little fel- 

 low, awakened by the grasp, struck him with his hand ; the wolf 

 left his hold, and, grasping him on the opposite side, broke his 

 collar-bone. The poor boy still fought with his left hand, and his 

 antagonist, letting go his hold a second time, seized him by the 

 fleshy part of his thigh, and ran off with his prey ; nor was it till 

 he had carried him a quarter of a mile that he could be made to 

 drop him, when, biting away the precious mouthful, he left the 

 little sufferer with his thigh half-severed, but fortunately the bone 

 was not broken. In this state he was brought to us for help, and 

 by daily attention he is perfectly restored." 



1 Shaw's Memorials of South Africa, 353. 



