rowing claws.

They are not tree-climbers, as their claws are not sufficiently
retractile for that. It is in their teeth their main dependence lies,
and in the great strength of their jaws.

Hyenas are solitary animals, though often troops of them are seen
together, attracted by the common prey. A dozen or more will meet over
a carcass, but each goes his own way on leaving it. They are extremely
voracious; will eat up almost anything--even scraps of leather or old
shoes! Bones they break and swallow as though these were pieces of
tender flesh. They are bold, particularly with the poor natives, who do
not hunt them with a view to extermination. They enter the miserable
kraals of the natives, and often carry off their children. It is
positively true that hundreds of children have been destroyed by hyenas
in Southern Africa!

It is difficult for you to comprehend why this is permitted--why there
is not a war of extermination carried on against the hyenas, until these
brutes are driven out of the land. You cannot comprehend such a state
of things, because you do not take into account the difference between
savage and civilised existence. You will suppose that human life in
Africa is held of far less value than it is in England; but if you
thoroughly understood political science, you would discover that many a
law of civilised life calls for its victims in far greater numbers than
do the hyenas. The empty review, the idle court fete, the reception of
an emperor, all require, as their natural sequence, the sacrifice of
many lives!

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

A HOUSE AMONG THE TREE-TOPS.

Von Bloom now reflected that the hyenas were likely to prove a great
pest to him. No meat, nor anything, would be safe from them--even his
very children would be in danger, if left alone in the camp; and no
doubt he would often be compelled to leave them, as he would require the
older ones upon his hunting excursions.

There were other animals to be dreaded still more than the hyenas. Even
during that night they had heard the roaring of lions down by the vley;
and when it was morning, the spoor showed that several of these animals
had drunk at the water.

How could he leave little Truey--his dear little Truey--or Jan, who was
not a bit bigger--how could he leave them in an open camp while such
monsters were roving about? He could not think of doing so.

He reflected what course he should pursue. At first he thought of