There cannot be a much more uninteresting animal than the hard-hided,
knock-kneed Hyæna, which is pre-eminently African, although he is found
in the East; having, according to the opinion of some naturalists,
migrated thither in the wake of caravans. He has a ferocious,
ill-natured look, yet the first impression made by his appearance can
only be expressed by the word "sneaking." He is of a tawny colour, more
or less dusky till it approaches black, and is generally spotted, or
striped. He has a mane continued all along the spine; his ears are long
and erect; he is digitigrade, his claws are strong, and not retractile;
he possesses a gland which sends forth a disagreeable odour, and his
eyes have a pupil which is contracted at the top, and round at the
bottom, which gives them a singular expression.
The great peculiarity of form in the Hyæna is the disproportionate
smallness of his hind quarters; besides which, the vertebræ of his neck
very often become stiffened, in consequence of the strain put upon them
by the powerful muscles of that part, and of the jaws. So firm is the
hold which they take, that nothing will make them leave what they have
once seized. They devour bones as well as muscles, rejecting only hoofs,
horns, and skull; and this power must have existed in former ages, for
in the caves which they inhabited, and into which they dragged their
prey, their fossil remains are found with those of gigantic mastodons,
etc., on which their teeth had made impression. This stiffness of the
neck has caused many to imagine that it was composed of one joint only,
and led the Arabs to make Hyænas the symbols of obstinacy.
The habits of Hyænas accord with their outward appearance; they are
nature's scavengers, and feed on everything, being, with the jackal and
Genet cat, the especial robbers of the cemetery. Many are the stories
told of their cruel depredations, such as their stealing into the kraals
of the Caffres and Hottentots, and abstracting the sleeping infants from
under the kaross of its mother, who only becomes conscious of her loss
when she hears the cries of the victim. Major Denham, in his travels,
tells us of a village stormed by them at night, when they carried off
asses and other animals.
My own impressions of the Hyæna are, that he is a timid, cowardly
animal. I always found them shun my approach; and my uncle has told me,
that when he often encountered them during his command of the outpost of
Tantum Querry, on the leeward coast of Africa, they invariably turned
from him, and slunk out of sight with their dragging, shuffling gait. I
cannot say that they disturbed the stillness of the night, because a
tropical night never is still; but their cry used suddenly to come upon
our ears, and I know not why, always seemed to be close to us. The roar
of a leopard or lion is most grand, however terrific; but what is
called the laugh of the hyæna, is just like the triumphant exultation
of a fierce madman, when he reaches his long-sought victim.
All the natives of the Gold Coast bear witness to the powers of mimicry
evinced by the hyæna; they say that he hides himself in the jungle, and
imitates the cries of other beasts till he allures them to his side,
when he falls upon and devours them. A gentleman, who long commanded a
fortress on the Gold Coast, told me the following story, which confirms
the above assertion:--"Some women from the neighbouring village were
accustomed to pass the walls of the fort to fetch water after sunset, at
the dinner hour of this officer, and made so much noise, that they
disturbed him, so he ordered them to take another path. The next evening
the noise recurred, and the same order was repeated the next morning; on
which the women protested they had gone quite another way. On the third
evening, when the laughing and talking were apparently recommencing, a
sergeant sallied forth to bring the delinquents into the fort; but to
his surprise there were only three hyænas to be seen, whose imitation of
human sounds had deceived all those who had heard them on the preceding
occasions."
It was long supposed that the hyæna was incapable of attachment, but Mr.
Burchell brought one with him from South Africa to this country, which
evidently loved his master, and was jealous of other animals. Colonel
Sykes procured one in India who followed him about like a dog, played
with the sailors on board ship with the greatest good humour, and never
forgot his first owner. He was placed in the Zoological Gardens, where,
although Colonel Sykes paid him rare visits, he always recognized him
amidst the crowd. One day, when the hyæna was asleep, this gentleman
suddenly called him by his name; the poor beast as suddenly started on
to his legs, looked up, rubbed his head against the bars of his cage,
bounded about uttering short cries, looked sorrowfully at Colonel Sykes
when he went away, and repeated these manifestations of joy when he
returned.
The Spotted Hyæna has been called the Hyæna Capensis, from the belief
that it only inhabited South Africa; but it is found as frequently in
Guinea as the striped variety, and has just the same propensities. Near
the Cape, however, it does more mischief, because colonists have settled
themselves there, and their farms afford more valuable prey. They are
said to prefer making an attack on strong, vigorous animals, because
they run away, and the hyænas can follow them; but the weaker animals
turn round and face their enemy, which always intimidates them.
Mr. Steedman, a South African traveller, gives an unmitigated bad
character to the spotted hyænas, and says, that such is their preference
for human flesh, that they will even pass by the cattle, and seize on
children as old as eight years.
The Straand Wolf of the Dutch, or the Villose Hyæna of Dr. Abel Smith,
who has done so much for the natural history of Southern Africa, is less
common than the other species; and often feeds on the shore, from its
preference for those dead animals which are cast up by the sea. If,
however, it be pressed by hunger, it commits just as many depredations
as the others. It is extremely cunning, conceals itself by day among the
mountains, or thick patches of forest, and preys at a great distance
from its habitation.
Mr. Pringle confirms Mr. Steedman's accounts of the terrible havoc
occasioned by the hyænas of South Africa, and says, that in the district
of Somerset, they destroyed seventy foals in one year, belonging to the
farmers; he, however, believes, that they never attack human beings by
night or by day, and that they come in packs and play the part of
four-footed vultures, even devouring their own kindred if they should
chance to be killed; but no other beast of prey will eat them, from the
offensive rankness of their flesh. The den of a spotted hyæna, that was
kept in the Tower about twenty years ago, required some repair. The
carpenter nailed a thick oaken plank upon the floor, about seven feet
long, putting at least a dozen nails into it, each longer than his
middle finger. At one end of this piece of wood, there was a small
projection, and not having a proper chisel with him by which he might
remove it, the man returned to his shop to fetch one. While he was
absent, some persons came to see the animals; and the hyæna was let down
by the keeper into the part of the den in which the carpenter had been
at work. Directly the beast saw the projecting piece of wood, he seized
it with his teeth, tore the plank up, and drew out every nail with the
utmost ease; which action will give a good idea of the muscular strength
of this creature.
It is impossible to say why there should be such conflicting accounts of
the hyæna, given by those whose veracity is undoubted. No one dreads
them on the Gold Coast, but they seem to be the terror of all the
inhabitants at, and to the north of the Cape, also in Abyssinia, where
Bruce called them "the plagues of their lives," and we can scarcely
forbear a smile, when we read that one of them stood by his bed-side,
with a purloined bunch of candles in his mouth; having found his way to
him even through the streets of Gondar.