248 UNDER THE AFRICAN SUN 



I had to shoot him. I gave him two shots in rapid succession ; 

 he gave a scream and snort, staggered, and retreated to where 

 the old one stood. As he got near to her, he rolled over with 

 his feet in the air ; but somehow he managed to scramble up 

 once more, staggered a few yards farther, and rolled over finally 

 on to his side. In the meanwhile I gave several shots to the old 

 one, to put her out of pain, as blood was streaming from her 

 nose and mouth. Then she too fell down and rolled over. 

 Curiously enough, their backs were turned towards each other 

 and their tails almost touching. The female had a remarkable 

 pair of horns, the posterior being larger and longer than the 

 anterior. I returned to our camp, and left the men to cut up 

 the meat ; but from what I heard afterwards, I was sorry that I 

 had not remained. 



The double supply of meat caused the cutting up to take 

 the men longer than usual ; and as it grew dark, a vast 

 number of hyaenas came, from no one knows where, and 

 formed a sort of circle round the score or more of men who 

 were busy with the meat. Some of the men told me that the 

 old hyaenas were patiently waiting till their turn of the feast 

 should come ; but in the meantime, the younger hyeenas were 

 frisking and gambolling about. The hyaenas must have been 

 rather disappointed at the short commons they found, as very 

 little was left for them except tough hide. 



