296 EXTRACTS FROM 
its legs again and scurried back to the mountains. I found 
some traces of blood, and searched for it a little while with no 
success ; time, too, was pressing, for twilight had already 
begun, and I had to hurry off to the right place for the 
hyzenas. 
Guided by the Arab, I rode through the desert, which kept 
widening out into the plain, until I reached a little sand-hill. 
The ambush was well chosen, and the dead donkey on the 
white sand was visible a long way off. 
The mountains rose in misty outlines; the yellow desert 
looked interminable, and a profound silence reigned over all 
the monotonous surroundings. We heard several jackals 
prowling about, and even saw them flit by like shadows, while 
I once even made out the form of a wolf, but the much- 
desired Hyzena did not appear. 
The proper time for this shy creature does not begin until 
about an hour after midnight; but by eleven o’clock I was 
again so overcome by sleep that I could no longer struggle 
against it and left the ambush, the Arab dismissing me with a 
reproachful look and sitting down again to watch. 
It was a long but beautiful ride that I now began, and the 
moonlit nights of Egypt are among the most charming of 
the recollections that I have carried away from the land of 
the Pharaohs. The huge Colossi loomed grand and ghostly 
by night among the fields ; and near the Nile a wolf ran by 
within a few yards, but unluckily my gun was not loaded. 
It was at a very late hour that I reached the steamer and 
my long-desired rest. 
On the morning of the 12th we all rode again to Medinet 
Abu by the same road. Large flocks of storks were stand- 
ing on the sandbanks and by the pools, as well as snipe and 
sandpipers, at which I shot from the back of my donkey. 
After an hour’s ride we arrived at the village, where the 
Arab sportsman was waiting to tell us that the Hyena had at 
