"NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
a desperate drive with both heels at the nearest 
hyzna, which was about to make a grab at him. 
One hoof struck the creature a severe blow on the 
chest, so severely crippling it that it was subse- 
quently captured alive. Its mate instantly fled 
when it saw its companion injured. 
The Spotted Hyzna is a useful scavenger to the 
natives of Africa who live in villages, for, during 
the night, they clear up every particle of filth de- 
posited on the outskirts of the village. Pressed by 
hunger, they sometimes steal amongst the huts 
under cover of darkness, if there be no stockade 
surrounding them; and should a child be unwary 
enough to be outside a hut, it is instantly seized 
and carried off into the neighbouring bush, where 
pursuit would be useless. 
A traveller in Central Africa informed me he met 
several natives who had been mutilated by Spotted 
Hyenas. The beast is too cowardly to attack a 
man when awake and active, but should it find him 
asleep it will sometimes screw up its courage suffi- 
ciently to make a sudden grab, and, tearing away a 
mouthful of flesh, it instantly bolts away. One 
man had the whole of his cheek thus torn off, and 
an eye blinded; a second had lost his nose and 
lips ; a third had a large piece of flesh torn from 
his thigh. Several travellers have recorded in- 
stances of natives being similarly mutilated by 
this beast. 
Some of the natives of Central Africa have a habit 
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