HYJSNAS—RETURN TO SllNAFK 53 



of the stream, some of the finest juniper trees I saw in 

 Abyssinia. Both here and close to Halai these trees 

 grew with a luxuriance unusual elsewhere. Some of 

 them, near our camp, served as the roosting-place for a 

 great flock of guinea-fowls. As soon as it was quite 

 dark, a couple of hysenas came to drink at the stream 

 close by our tent. The night before, at Halai, one of 

 these brutes had seized a goat which was tied up, a,nd 

 broken his jaw, and after being driven off had returned, 

 and severely wounded a pony, tearing open his thigh. 

 The boldness of the Abyssinian hyaenas is remarkable ; 

 they appear to think nothing of tearing or attempting to 

 tear pieces of flesh from the sides of living animals as 

 large as a mule or pony. On this occasion, however, it 

 being bright moonlight, I went after one fellow, and 

 by good luck put a bullet through his neck, dropping 

 him on the spot. It is always more by accident than 

 anj^hing else that one succeeds in killing an animal by 

 moonlight. No plan I ever tried — and I have tried 

 many — reaUy enables a sportsman to see along the 

 barrels of his gun, except in the unusual circumstance 

 of the moon being in such a position as to be reflected 

 from the rib between the barrels. This once happened to 

 me in India : I went after a bear, who came close to my 

 tent at night, and catching by chance the moonlight on 

 my barrels, I shot him through the heart with as much 

 certainty as in daylight. 



The next day we marched to Takonda again, and 

 thence into Senafd We had run out of commissariat 

 supplies, but guinea-fowls, hares, and partridges were 



