ey positively declared the statement to be
a lie, many, on being more closely questioned, admitted the possibility
of its truth, for they could not deny that cattle are frequently attacked
by hyaenas, whose practice is to leap on the animals from behind and at
once begin devouring the hind quarters; and yet, if driven off in time,
the cattle have still lived."--Times, Jan. 167.

It is reasonable enough that a small worn-out party should adopt this
plan, when they are travelling in a desert where the absence of water
makes it impossible to delay, and when they are sinking for want of food.
If the ox were killed outright there would be material for one meal only,
because a worn-out party would be incapable of carrying a load of flesh.
By the Abyssinian plan the wounded beast continues to travel with the
party, carrying his carcase that is destined to be turned into butcher's
meat for their use at a further stage. Of course the idea is very
revolting, for the animal must suffer as much as the average of the tens
or hundreds of wounded hares and pheasants that are always left among the
bushes after an ordinary English battue. To be sure, the Abyssinian plan
should only be adopted to save human life.

When I travelled in South-West Africa, at one part of my journey a plague
of bush-ticks attacked the roots of my oxen's tails. Their bites made
festering sores, which ended in some of the tails dropping bodily off. I
heard such accidents were not at all uncommon. The animals did not travel
the worse for it. Now ox-tail soup is proverbially nutritious.

Insects.--Most kinds of creeping things are eatable, and are used by the
Chinese. Locusts and grasshoppers are not at all bad. To prepare them,
pull off the legs and wings and roast them with a little grease in an
iron dish, like coffee. Even the gnats that swarm on the Shire River are
collected by the natives and pressed into cakes.

Wholesome and poisonous Plants.--No certain rule can be given to
distinguish wholesome plants from poisonous ones; but it has been
observed that much the same thing suits the digestion of a bird that
suits that of a man; and, therefore, that a traveller, who otherwise
would make trials at haphazard, ought to examine the contents of those
birds' crops that he may catch or shoot, to give a clue to his
experiments. The rule has notable exceptions, but in the absence of any
other guide it is a very useful one.

The only general rules that botany can