XVIII 
THE HYsENA 
149 
It was the usual occurrence in camp, when 
we were travelling through the Nile tributaries of 
Abyssinia, that immediately we had retired within 
the tent to sleep, after having dined outside, we 
heard the cracking of bones, all of which had 
been thrown by the Arab servants only a few feet 
from our deserted table. The hyaenas must have 
been watching us while at dinner, although them¬ 
selves unseen, as they came to glean the crumbs 
almost immediately upon our disappearance. The 
curious weird howls of these brutes were heard 
throughout the night close to the tent-door, but they 
never attacked our goats, neither did we ever 
lose a fowl through their depredations ; they were 
simply scavengers. 
The early traveller James Bruce, who discovered 
the source of the Blue Nile (1773), had a peculiar 
respect for hyaenas, which he considered to be 
dangerous. They are so much despised, that during 
the great hunts of Central Africa, should any of 
these useful beasts be killed, it is the custom for the 
women of the village to visit the bodies, and each 
administers to the carcase one blow with a stick, in 
derision of the cowardly character it bore when alive. 
