THE HYENA 205 



that this appalling custom beyond all doubt still 

 survived. It is implicitly believed among certain 

 tribes whose country borders the Zambezi that 

 these corpse-devouring wizards hold periodical 

 meetings or sabbaths, when they associate 

 together in the forms of hyenas assumed for the 

 purpose ; it is further believed that they can, if 

 they should so desire, render themselves invisible. 

 The act of disinterment is said to be effected by 

 the issue of a summons to the dead man couched 

 in the form of an incantation, and in language 

 known to and used by the wizards only whilst 

 appearing in animal form. This summons the 

 newly sepulchred dead cannot resist. The corpse 

 is compelled, conjured by the name of childhood 

 before puberty,^ to leave its tomb and appear at 

 the dreadful trysting-place, whereupon the as- 

 sembled hyena-men fall upon and devour it, 

 whilst night-jars and the great eagle-owl watch 

 without. These superstitions are implicitly 

 believed over a great portion of the Zambezi 

 vaUey, and it will therefore be readily imagined 

 that to native ears the curious, uncanny bass- 

 falsetto howl of the questing hyena is a sound 

 pregnant with awful significance. 



The only occasion upon which I fancy one of 

 these animals had any design upon my tent was 

 one night in the Barue where I made a long and 

 deeply interesting journey in 1907. Sleeping as 

 I almost invariably do with my tent door open, 

 and a heavy service revolver upon the ground 



1 At puberty Zambezian natives receive a new name which 

 they bear throughout life. 



