162 MAMMALIA—HYANA. 
natural aversion to close confinement, and when exhioited, as he generally 
is, in a narrow cage, he is miserable, and consequently irritable. In a man, 
similarly situated, the expression of anger would be praised as a generous 
hatred of slavery. 
The hyena was undoubtedly once an inhabitant not only of the European 
continent, but also of the British islands. His bones have been found in 
various parts of England and Wales, and particularly in a cave at Kirby 
Moorside, in Yorkshire. 
The depredations of the hyena are not confined to the remains of the 
dead. There are periods when they become bold from extreme hunger, and 
will carry off very large animals, and even human beings, with the most 
daring ferocity. Major Denham says, “at this season of the year,” 
(August,) “there are other reasons, besides the falls of rain, which induce 
people to remain in their habitations. When the great lake overflows the 
immense district which, in the dry season, affords cover and food, by its 
coarse grass and jungle, to the numerous savage animals with which Bornou 
abounds, they are driven from these wilds, and take refuge in the standing 
corn, and sometimes in the immediate neighborhood of the towns. Ele- 
phants had already been seen at Dowergoo, scarcely six miles from Kouka, 
and a female slave, while she was returning heme, from weeding the corn, 
to Kowa, not more than ten miles distant, had been carried off by a lioness. 
The hyenas, which are every where in legions, grew now so extremely 
ravenous, that a good large village, where I sometimes procured a draught 
of sour milk on my duck-shooting excursions, had been attacked the night 
before my last visit, the town absolutely carried by storm, notwithstanding 
defences nearly six feet high of branches of the prickly tulloh, and two 
donkies, whose flesh these animals are particularly fond of, carried off, in 
spite of the efforts of the people. We constantly heard them close to the 
walls of our town at night; and ona gate being left partly open, they 
would enter and carry off any unfortunate animal that they could find in 
the streets.” = 
With this strong desire for food, approaching to the boldness of the most 
desperate craving, the hyena, although generally fearful of the presence 
of man, is an object of natural terror to the African traveller. Bruce relates, 
that one night in Maibsha, in Abyssinia, he heard a noise in his ‘ent, ana, 
getting up from his bed, saw two large blue eyes glaring upon him. It 
was a powerful hyena, who had been attracted to the tent by a quantity of 
candles, which he had seized upon, and was bearing off in his mouth. He 
had a desperate encounter with the beast, but succeeded in killing him. In 
the neighborhood of the ruins of those cities on the northern coast of Africa, 
which, in ancient times, were the abodes of wealth and splendor, and 
witnessed the power of the Ptolemies and Cesars, the hyena is a constant 
resident, and increases the sense of desolation by the gloorniness of his 
habits. At Ptolemeta, where there are many remains of former architectural 
