In Afric’s Forest and Jungle 
get into the house, it was a long time before she 
could listen with composure to the unearthly 
howls of the large, “ laughing ” hyenas. To be 
suddenly awakened by one of those long-drawn 
demoniacal yells right under your window, is 
enough to chill the blood of the stoutest-hearted. 
But when we learned that they were the scaven¬ 
gers of the town and that their visits were ac¬ 
ceptable to the people, we did not molest them. 
The dead bodies of bankrupts, mendicants and 
babes in this country are not buried, but are 
thrown out into the “bush” along the town 
walls or into places reserved for refuse matter. 
Such places would soon breed pestilence if it 
were not for these noisy prowlers of the night. 
They had been so accustomed to roam with im¬ 
punity that they sometimes came moaning up to 
our front gate before it was dark, but I did not 
dare to shoot them lest it might offend the super¬ 
stitious. 1 was informed that the most savage 
among them never attacked in the daytime, and 
that those which wandered about the streets 
were not especially dangerous at any time. But 
I doubt this, for at night the people were always 
secure in their compounds and had no way of 
knowing what they would do. Yet some of the 
“old stagers” did seem to be partially domesti- 
70 
