50 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Mr. Brace's adventure with a hyaena. 



mouth. To have fired at him, would have been 

 nt the risk of breaking my quadrant or other fur- 

 niture; and he seemed, by keeping the candles 

 steadily in his mouth, to wish for no other prey 

 at that time. As his mouth was full, and he had 

 no -claws to tear with, I was not afraid of him ; 

 and, with a pike, stuck him as near the heart as 

 1 could. It was not till then that he shewed any 

 sign of fierceness ; but upon feeling his wound, 

 he dropped the candles, and endeavoured to run 

 up the shaft of the spear to arrive at me, so that 

 1 was obliged to draw my 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 hyaena was the plague of our lives, the 

 terror of our night-walks, and the destruction of 

 our mules and asses, which, above every thing 

 else, are his favourite food." 



At Dar-Fur, a kingdom in the interior of 

 Africa, these animals came in herds of six, eight, 

 and sometimes more, into the villages at night, 

 and carry off whatever they are able to master. 

 They kill dogs and asses, even within the inch>- 

 sure of the houses ; and always assemble where- 

 ever a dead animal is thrown, which, by their 

 united efforts, they drag to a prodigious distance; 

 nor are they greatly intimidated at the approach 

 of men, or the report of fire-arms. 



These animals are now to be seen in most of 

 the exhibitions of wild beasts in England. The 

 keepers represent the old ones as extremely stub- 



