THE STRIPED HYAENA 137 



matters. Cemeteries are favourite resorts, and from freshly 

 filled in graves it will drag out the bodies that are not buried 

 deeply. And all the time the hungry beast is on the look 

 out for living prey, especially the ass, which is its favourite 

 food, while cattle of all kinds are ravenously devoured. 



During the ruthless wars which formerly constantly took 

 place among the barbarous nations of Africa, Hyaenas and 

 vultures were regular attendants upon the field of battle. 

 The dead were left unburied, the vultures gorged their fill, 

 and the Hyaenas completed the work, so as scarcely to leave 

 a bone to commemorate the slaughter. 



In modern times matters have improved, but it is in- 

 teresting to note the testimony of Bruce concerning his 

 encounters with the Hyaena. ' They were,' says he, * the 

 scourge of Abyssinia. From evening till the dawn the 

 town of Gondar was full of them. Here they sought 

 the different pieces of slaughtered carcasses which were 

 exposed in the streets without burial. Many a time when 

 the King had kept me late in the palace, on going across 

 the square, I have been apprehensive lest they should bite 

 me in the leg. They grunted in great numbers around me, 

 although I was accompanied by several armed men, who 

 seldom passed a night without wounding or slaughtering 

 some of them. 



'One night I went out of my tent and, returning imme- 

 diately, I perceived two large blue eyes glaring at me in the 

 dark. I called my servant to bring a light, and we found a 

 Hyaena standing near the head of the bed with two or three 

 large bunches of candles in his mouth, by keeping which 

 he seemed to wish at that time no other prey. I was not 

 afraid of him, and with a pike struck him as near the heart 

 as I could. It was not until I had done this that he showed 

 any signs of fierceness, but, upon feeling his wound, he 

 dropped the candles and endeavoured to run upon the 

 shaft of the spear to arrive at me, so that I was obliged 

 to draw a pistol from my girdle and shoot him, and nearly 

 at the same time my servant cleft his skull with a battle-axe. 

 In a word, the Hyaenas were the plague of our lives, the 

 terror of our night walks, and the destruction of our mules 

 and asses, which are their favourite food.' 



