20 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



enormous reddish ruff round the neck, and, next to the 

 ostrich, it was the hirgest bird I have seen. I got it with a 

 Martini bullet by a lucky shot through the neck, at 200 yards. 

 The skin from tip of beak to tip of toe was nearly twice the 

 length of any chop-box in my possession. It was left, therefore, 

 for the night on the top of the boxes under the awning of my 

 tent. I woke up in the night, hearing a scrambling noise close 

 to me, but too late ; some hyaena had carried off my bird, 

 although a night-watchman was on duty a few yards off. It 

 was no comfort to know that the hyaena must have made its last 

 meal, as I had freely used arsenical soap in preparing the skin. 



Since then I have never left anything within reach of a 

 hungry hyaena ; and care has to be taken not to expose either 

 saddle or harness to tempt these voracious brutes, I have seen 

 but two species of hyaena, the spotted and the brown. The one 

 shown in the illustration I got by setting a trap-gun. The trap 

 is easily set. Tie the bait over the muzzle of the rifle. Use in 

 preference a piece of offal, for instance a bit of highly odoriferous 

 goatskin. Suspend or fasten the rifle horizontally at such a 

 height from the ground, that the hyaena can conveniently grab 

 the bait. Attention must be paid to expose the bait in such a 

 way, that the hyaena cannot seize it from the side, but has to 

 approach the front of the muzzle. Place the trigger at full cock 

 and tie it by a bit of string to the tree or bush behind it ; now 

 pull the muzzle forward, and, if the trap is in good working- 

 order, the trigger will at once respond and strike. If the trap 

 works satisfactorily, the rifle may now be loaded and left in situ. 

 Any prowling hyaena is sure to be attracted and to immolate 

 itself ; the bullet is almost certain to blow its brains out. In 

 a wilderness the only precaution necessary is to warn every 

 one in the caravan, and to see that the gun points away from 

 the camp. Hyaenas seem to be attacked by the same sort of 

 tick which is a parasite of rhinos. 



At Sakwa's village in Kavirondo a donkey was so badly 

 mauled by a hyaena that it died. Most travellers take some goats 

 or sheep along with their caravan in the event of failing to shoot 

 game or to buy meat from the natives. The animals should 

 be carefully penned up at night and surrounded with a strong 

 protecting thorn-fence, called " boma " by the Swahilies. On 

 my second journey, we had bought some sheep and goats at 

 Kikuyu, in anticipation of continuing our march next morning. 



