THE HYENA. 
371 
that he showed any signs of fierceness, but 
upon feeling the wound he let drop the 
candles and endeavoured to run up the shaft 
of the pike to arrive at me, so that in self-de¬ 
fence I was obliged to draw out a pistol and 
shoot him; and nearly at the same time my 
servant cleft his head with a little axe. In 
a word, the hyena was the plague of our 
lives, the terror of our nightly walks, the 
destruction of our mules and asses, which 
above all are his favourite food.’ 
“The hyena, like the jackal, feeds upon 
the food left by the lion, as he does upon 
any carrion whatever; and in this way has 
probably arisen the story of his being (as 
well as the jackal) the lion’s provider. It 
is said that the lion punishes very severely 
any interference of the hyena with his 
game, even biting off the feet of the mise¬ 
rable animal and leaving it to a lingering 
death. Dr. Livingstone witnessed an in¬ 
stance of this kind.” 
“How many varieties of the hyena are 
there?” asked Annie. “Ido not remem¬ 
ber to have seen any but the spotted and 
striped.” 
“There is also the naked hyena, which 
