The red book of animal stories/Hyenas and Children
HYENAS AND CHILDREN
Long ago, travellers used to think that hyenas had a kind of magic about them, by which they could force their prey to stand in one place till they were ready to fall upon it. It was enough for the hyena to walk round an animal three times to make it as helpless as a bird in the power of a snake. Of course it may not always have been easy to get the creature to remain stock still while the hyena was performing this ceremony—for nothing less than three complete turns would induce the spell to work—but that does not seem to have occurred to the old writers. In the case of a man, he must be most careful, if he ever met a hyena, not to allow him to pass on the right side, for, if he did, he would be certain to fall senseless off his horse before he had ridden very far.
All sorts of charms were considered necessary to preserve men against the wiles of a hyena, and curiously enough, the beast’s own skin was held to contain a spell. A hyena’s skin hung up on a gate or fence would ensure that the fruit trees within should be proof against either hail or lightning. No darts could pierce the man who went into battle with the skin of a hyena wrapped about him, and any farmer, anxious to increase his crop, had only to place his seed in a hyena bag, for his land to bring forth a three-fold quantity.
Travellers in these times do not put quite so much faith in the power of the hyena, dead or alive; but they quite agree that, like most cowardly beasts, he is very cunning. One of his favourite tricks is suddenly to pop up his big, bristly body in the midst of the grass where a herd of cattle are feeding, and to frighten them into running away. If they fly, he follows and bites the hindermost animals; but if they make a stand, he seldom or never fights.
He may always be found prowling about African battlefields, after the dead bodies, or hiding amidst the ruins of a deserted city, waiting for some unsuspecting creature to come past; but his greed is equal to his cowardice, and he infinitely prefers human flesh to any other, when he can get it without danger to himself. In some parts of Africa hyenas will actually pass by a calf which is tied up inside the dwelling-house, and will take up a sleeping child from its mother’s side, moving it so gently that neither child nor mother wakes.
This horrible event happened more than once in the family of a man named Dassa, who lived in the land of the Kaffirs. One night, when all were sleeping soundly, a great hyena (or wolf, as it is called in those parts) stole softly into the house, and picking up a little boy, made for the door. Luckily, however, the child woke before it was beyond help, and its cries brought its father to the rescue. The hyena dropped his prey, and the boy escaped, thankful to get off with a torn cheek.
The next night the father lit a bigger fire than before—very few animals will venture past a fire—and lay down to sleep with his longest spear in his hand. But the hyena knew better than to come back so soon, and if he peeped in longingly, nobody was any the wiser.
Several nights passed; the boy’s cheek was almost well, and the fright nearly forgotten. But one morning, when they all woke, another brother was nowhere to he seen. They searched high and low, with beating hearts, and at length they came on the trail of a hyena, which they followed up. Then at last the father came on something which he recognised as having belonged to the boy, but nothing more was ever heard of the little fellow himself. The terrible creature had managed to move him so softly, that the child had never opened his eyes till it was too late, and then he saw the face of his deadly enemy above him. It really seems almost as if hyenas had indeed the power of casting a spell over their prey.
Made bold by this success, the hyena prowled nightly round the house till he thought he could safely venture in. This time, the child lying nearest the door was a boy of about ten, and therefore not so easy to deal with as the other two. In spite of this, the monster managed to get him outside the hut, and then dropping him for a moment, seized him again by the shoulder. The child, now fully awake, gave him such a blow on the nose that the hyena let go his shoulder, but grasping his collar-bone firmly with his teeth, broke it in two. The boy still hit out, though his right arm was disabled, and again the hyena shifted his hold to the thigh, and ran off with his victim just as the father, roused from sleep by the boy’s cries, rushed to the spot. For a quarter of a mile the chase continued, and then a fierce blow forced the animal to drop the boy. When brought to the camp of the Englishmen to be doctored, his thigh was found to be half-bitten through, though fortunately the bone was not broken. Every possible care was given to him, and in a few months his leg was quite cured.
A little girl, two years younger, did not escape so easily. One very hot morning, she was lying under the shade of a tree, when four hyenas suddenly appeared before her, and carried her off between them. One took hold of her head, a second seized her shoulder, and the other two grasped her thighs. The child’s shrieks brought the village people flying to her help, and they soon managed to beat off the hyenas, but not before the child was dreadfully injured. Savage nations have not much patience with sick or deformed people, even when part of their own family; and after trying all their medicines on her for a few days without making her any better, they got tired of the whole affair. A choice was given the poor little thing, either to be put to death at once, or, if she preferred it, to be turned loose in the forests, and there to run her chance of being eaten by wild beasts, or dying of starvation.
It did not take the little girl long to make up her mind, neither did she waste any time in weeping over her dreadful fate. Although only eight years old, she had heard of the fame and the kindness of the white men, and she at once determined to go in search of their station. What a terrible journey that must have been! The station was many miles away, and to reach it, the child, badly injured as she was, and still suffering from the shock of the attack, had to pass through woods haunted by the most savage beasts, and to climb through deep glens, where an enemy might be lurking behind every rock. But somehow or other she did it, and arrived at the station in a fearful condition of pain and hunger, covered with fourteen large wounds from the teeth of the hyenas. At first it seemed impossible that she could live, but, wonderful to say, in the end, she not only recovered from her injuries, but bore hardly any signs of them, except some scars.
In spite of his ugly, ill-shapen form, few animals are quicker of movement than a hyena, and, cowardly though they are, their skill in dodging often enables them to get the better of their enemies. When Mr. Selous was on one of his expeditions in Mashonaland, the camp was disturbed for several nights by the knowledge that a hyena was prowling round, in the fond hope of catching them napping. He had not, however, shown as much cunning as usual, for the moon was still bright, and it was easy for the dogs to stop his proceedings.
At length a night came when the moon did not rise till ten, and, as near the equator it always gets dark early, it was necessary to shut up the camp at sunset to defend it against wild beasts. So the waggon was, as usual, placed in the middle, and the horses tied up just beyond, with then maize porridge cooling beside them on the hide of a freshly-killed eland bull. A few yards away were a circle of big fires, with thirty or forty natives talking and laughing over their supper.
Suddenly, in the very midst of the group, appeared the gaunt form of a hyena, with its sides looking as if they had been flattened by a spade. It seized the skin, and was lost in the darkness, before any of the men had recovered from their surprise. Indeed, the whole thing hardly lasted longer than a flash of lightning. In a moment, however, when they had recovered their senses, they were all after it, dogs as well as men, lighted by bundles of burning grass by way of torches. The trail was easily found, as it had to drag the huge eland skin, weighing at least forty pounds, in its mouth, but it was already across the stream, three hundred yards away, before the dogs came up. Then it dropped the skin at once, without attempting to show fight, and galloped off as fast as its legs would carry it.
But they all knew the ways of hyenas well enough to be sure that this one was certain to return again before very long. So the dogs were tied up, and as there was still plenty of time before the moon rose, Selous took his rifle and waited under a bush outside the camp. After some time he fancied he saw something coming towards him, and when the creature was quite close he fired. It was too dark to tell clearly what had happened, but it seemed as if something fell, and then got up and walked off. Shouting for the dogs to be unfastened and for the Kaffirs to bring torches, Selous made ready to follow, and the hyena was tracked to some long grass a hundred yards away. It managed to beat off the attacks of the dogs, and reached the river, where it stood in a pool till an assegai from a Kaffir put an end to it, much to the joy of the natives, for the hyena was a well-known robber, and many were the goats and cattle that it had stolen for dinner.[1]
- ↑ Steedman’s Wanderings, and Selous’ Travels passim.