THE HY&NA. 49 



Mr. Bruce's account of the Abyssinian hysenas. 



" These creatures/' says Mr. Bruce, " were a 

 general scourge to Abyssinia, in every situation, 

 both in the city and in the field ; and, I think, 

 surpassed the sheep in number. Gondar was 

 full of them, from evening till dawn of day ; seek- 

 ing the different pieces of slaughtered carcases 

 which this cruel and unclean people expose in 

 the streets without burial ; firmly believing that 

 these animals are the Falasha or evil genii, trans- 

 formed by magic, and come down from the 

 neighbouring mountains to eat human rlesh in 

 the dark with safety. Many a time in the night, 

 when the king had kept me late in the palace, 

 and it was not my duty to lie there, in going 

 across the square from the king's house, no-t 

 many hundred yards distant, I have been appre- 

 hensive lest they should bite me in the leg. They 

 grunted in great numbers about me, although I 

 was surrounded with several armed men, who 

 seldom passed a night without wounding or 

 slaughtering some of them. One night in 

 Maitsha, being very intent on an observation, 1 

 heard something pass behind me towards the 

 bed; but, upon looking round, could perceive 

 nothing. Having finished what I was about, I 

 went out of my tent, resolving directly to return ; 

 which I immediately did, when I perceived two 

 large blue eyes glaring at me in the dark. I 

 called up my servant with a light; and we found 

 a hya3na standing near the head of the bed, with 

 two or three large bunches of candles in his 



NO. II. G 



