202 THE HYENA 



to have such a horror. Still, he does not always 

 do so, as the following incident will show. In 

 September 1904, I was proceeding through an 

 out-of-the-way portion of Portuguese East Africa 

 on an official tour when, early in the morning, 

 which was cloudy and dull, a reedbuck closely 

 pursued by a hyena dashed across the path we 

 were following, and was pulled down about half 

 a mile farther on. Some of my people said that 

 there were two hyenas in pursuit of the buck, but 

 I only saw one ; in any event, we promptly took 

 up the spoor and came up in about twenty 

 minutes to the buck newly killed. It had already 

 suffered some slight damage from the hyena's 

 teeth, but the brute slunk away as we approached, 

 so we were unable to get a shot at him. We were, 

 however, very glad of the reedbuck meat, of which 

 we promptly took possession. We found, on 

 examination, that one of her legs was injured, a 

 circumstance which may have tempted the hyena 

 out of his usual custom in giving chase to her. 



In some of the larger Zambezian settlements 

 hyenas are very numerous at night ; here on 

 occasion they can be seen slinking about in the 

 shadows in their search for garbage and offal of 

 all kinds. Stories are told of their snatching 

 goats, kids, lambs, and even young children at 

 times almost from within the shelter of the huts, 

 and instances are numerous of their having badly 

 bitten sleeping natives and others benighted by 

 the wayside, tearing from them substantial pieces 

 of flesh. One native woman whom I h^ve seen at 

 Vicente presented an appalling spectacle as the 



