74 
THE HY^NA. 
most daring ferocity. Major Denham relate® 
that in Bournou, in the month of August, wheP 
tlie great lake overflows, the water drives th® 
wild beasts from their haunts in the jungles, afl^ 
forces them to take I’efuge in the standing coi'P 
and sometimes in the immediate neighbourhoo<l 
of the towns. Owing as much to this caus^ 
as to the heavy falls of rain, people are afraid 
to venture out of their habitations. “ Th^ 
hyffinas, he continues, “ w'hich are everywhere 
in legions, now grew so extremely ravenoii®^ 
that a good large village, where I sometime® 
procured a draught of sour milk in my duck' 
shooting excursions, had been attacked the 
night before my last visit, the town absolute!/ 
carried by storm, notwithstanding defences 
the prickly tulloh, nearly six feet high, an^^ 
two donkeys, whose flesh these animals are 
particularly fond of, carried ofF, in spite 
the eflbrts of the people. We constant!/ 
heard them close to the walls of our town 
i 
