72 THE WONDERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



and attacks them only by stealth, frequently surprising them in their sleep, and biting off the tails of 

 the oxen for which it appears to have a particular fancy, and inflicting such serious injuries upon the 

 horses, especially the young colts, that they rarely survive the attack of the animal. 



The hyaena dog may be said to be domesticated throughout the whole of the interior of Africa. 

 We were informed by Mr. Larnders, the companion of the unfortunate Clapperton, in his attempt to 

 discover the source of the Niger, that throughout the whole of their journey the Hyaena was sure to 

 prove a continual source of dread and annoyance to them. Their continual howling during the night, 

 soundino- from every quarter around them, and proceeding almost from a hundred mouths at a time, 

 was sufficient to strike terror into die stoutest hearts. It was only by means of large fires, kept con- 

 tinually blazing round their bivouac, that these ferocious brutes could be kept in any kind of awe, and 

 even at times their natural ferocity and boldness appeared to stimulate them to rush past the fires, and 

 o-lut themselves with the blood of their victims. They have been seen prowling in groupes round and 

 round the protecting fires, shewing their grinning, snarling, hideous faces, and scratching the ground 

 •with their fore-paws, in the wildest ebullitions of rage at the flaming barrier which stood between 

 them and their prey. The habitations of the natives are at night strongly barricadoed against the 

 encroachments of these animals, who, as soon as night sets in, commence their predatory excursions, 

 and appeal - to think themselves privileged to prowl at random through the towns, gorging themselves 

 with the offals and the refuse which the lazy and dirty habits of the natives incline them to leave in 

 the streets. It is on account of the depreciations of these animals that the inhabitants, in all cases 

 where the opportunity presents itself, select an island for the burying-place of their dead, for there only 

 are they secure from the rapacity of the hyaenas ; and in those situations where an island cannot be 

 found, the natives prefer attaching the corpse to the highest branches of a tree, rather than inhuming 

 it in the earth, although the remedy is as bad as the disease, for the body, thus exposed, soon becomes 

 devoured by the birds of prey. In some parts, rather than allow the corpse to be torn to pieces by 

 the hyaena, it is thrown into the river, where it is soon eaten by the alligator, but as that creature is, 

 in many parts of Africa, a fetish, it is not by any means considered a misfortune to be devoured by it. 



Mr. Bruce, speaking of this race of animals, says, " These creatures were a general scourge to 

 Abyssinia: in every situation, both of the city and the field, and they seemed to surpass even the 

 sheep in number. From evening to the dawn of day, the town of Gondar was full of them. Here 

 they sought the different pieces of slaughtered carcasses, which this cruel and unclean people were 

 accustomed to expose in the streets without burial. Many a time in the night, when the king had 

 kept me late in the palace, on going across the square from the king's house, I have been apprehensive 

 lest they should bite me in the leg. They grunted in great numbers around me, although I was 

 surrounded by several armed men, who seldom passed a night without wounding or slaughtering some 

 of them. One night in Maitsha, being very intent on an observation, I heard something pass behind 

 me towards the bed, but on looking round could perceive nothing. Having finished what I was then 

 about, I went out of my tent, resolving directly to return; this I immediately did, and in so doing 

 perceived two large blue eyes glaring at me in the dark. I called my servant to bring a light, and 

 we found a hyama standing near the head of the bed, with two or three large bunches of candles in 

 his mouth. To have fired at him would have been at the risk of breaking my quadrant or other 

 furniture, and he seemed, by keeping the candles steadily in his mouth, to wish at that time for no other 

 prey. As his mouth was full, and he had no claws to tear with, I was not afraid of him, and with a 

 pike struck him as near the heart as I could. It was not until I had done this that he shewed any 

 si°ns of fierceness, but upon feeling his wound he dropped the candles, and endeavoured to run up 

 the shaft of the spear to arrive at me, so that I was obliged to draw a pistol from my girdle and shoot 

 him, and nearly at the same time my sen-ant cleft his skull -with a battle-axe. " 



