‘A JOURNEY IN THE EAST’ 335 
country life the whole year round, devoting himself to serious 
studies and charitable deeds. His servant, Ferdinand Nico- 
demus, a Syrian Christian, and a very well educated young 
man, does good service in the hospice as a skilled apothecary. 
He is also a very smart fellow, an excellent horseman, and 
sharp and adroit in dealing with the natives. He accom- 
panied us throughout our tour in Palestine and won our 
universal esteem. 
As soon as we entered the courtyard a number of fine large 
Arab dogs, very like our Hungarian wolf-dogs, sprang out on 
all sides, and welcomed: their master with joyful whimpers. 
Count Caboga is a great lover of animals, and tames the most 
varied kinds. He long had a perfectly tame Hyeena, and now 
a handsome Asiatic Sheep ran about the house after him, 
while a Cockatoo, that lived wild among the pigeons in the 
tower of the castle, flew lightly down on its master’s 
shoulder. 
After inspecting the comfortably arranged castle I went 
out with Ferdinand and my jager to the place where Hyzenas 
are generally shot at night. 
We walked a little way back along the Jerusalem road 
until we were a few hundred yards below the Monastery of 
Mar-Elyas, where there were some old walls constructed of 
large loose stones. In one of these an ambush had been so 
cleverly made as to be quite invisible, while before it lay a 
dead donkey in the very unsavoury condition that the Hyena 
loves. 
There was now unfortunately no moonlight, and the nights 
were so dark that one could hardly expect to see the wild 
animals, much less to shoot them, so in order to get hold of 
a hyena I had brought plenty of poison with me in the 
form of strong strychnine. We therefore put on thick leather 
gloves and artistically prepared the leg of the jackass, laying, 
according to old usage, some poisoned fragments round the 
