to show that this precaution was necessary.

As soon as the waggons were arranged in the usual manner, the cattle
were permitted to graze till the evening, when they were brought in and
secured, as usual, inside and round the waggons. They supped off the
remainder of the springbok, which was not very sweet; but the horses and
men were both too much exhausted with the fatiguing journey to hunt
until the following day.

That night they were not disturbed by lions, but the hyenas contrived to
crawl under the waggons, and, having severely bitten one of the oxen,
succeeded in carrying off one of the sheep. They had been so often
annoyed by these animals, that we have never mentioned them; but on the
following morning it was found that the ox had been so seriously injured
that the leg-bone was broken, and they were obliged to destroy the
animal.

"Were the courage of the hyena equal to his strength, it would be a most
formidable animal," observed Swinton; "but the fact is, it seldom or
never attacks mankind, although there may be twenty in a troop. At the
same time, among the Caffres they very often do enter the huts of the
natives, and occasionally devour children and infirm people. But this
is greatly owing to the encouragement they receive from the custom of
the Caffres leaving their dead to be devoured by these animals, which
gives them a liking for human flesh, and makes them more bold to obtain
it."

"They must have a tremendous power in their jaw," observed Alexander.

"They have, and it is given them for all-wise purposes. The hyena and
the vulture are the scavengers of the tropical regions. The hyena
devours what the vulture leaves, which is the skin and bones of a dead
carcass. Its power of jaw is so great, that it breaks the largest bone
with facility."

"Are there many varieties of them?"

"In Africa there are four:--The common spotted hyena, or wolf of the
colonists, whose smell is so offensive that dogs leave it with disgust
after it is killed; its own fellows will, however, devour it
immediately. The striped or ferocious hyena, called the shard-wolf; and
another, which the colonists call the bay-wolf, and which I believe to
be the one known as the laughing hyena. There is another variety, which
is a sort of link between the hyena and the dog, called the venatica.
It hunts in packs, and the colonists term it the wild honde. It was
first classed by Burchell the traveller. This last is smaller,