*775- Julyof the hyaena’s power to imitate the human voice, and to charm the ihepherds,'fo that they were not able to ftir from the fpot they were in. , . , „ I S I have already given an account of this creature s power to imitate other animals ; all the country people, wherever I paffed in the courfe of my journey, were agreed on this point. I myfelf, as well as my fellow-traveller, and my Hottentots, together with a boor and his whole Gaurits Rivier, heard a wolf imitate iheep and lambs; That the noife came from the wolf we had reafon to conclude, partly, from our having heard it from the place where he difcovered himfelf, both before and afterwards, by his ufual and peculiar howl; partly becaufe all the iheep were near at hand, and had been all reckoned before they were folded; and indeed, partly becaufe the bleating was emitted in rather too iharp atone, and fo little like the natural found, that even the dogs belonging to the farm w6re fenfible of the trick, and ran out that way barking violently; but what kind of wolf this was, nobpdy could inform me with any certainty. A little farther on I ihall have occafion more particularly to relate, how we were difturbed in a defert place by a great body o f wolves, which, in confluence of the infernal noife they made, might, in former times, eafily have induced the fuperftitious ihepherds to believe any conceit whatever, that the firft emotions of their terror could infpire. . . „ . 1 In Lange Kloof, near GantzeCraal Rivier, I was ihewed a little piece of ikin, which was faid to be that of a wolh In its colour it came nearefl: to that o f our Swediih wolves, VM* hut the hair was coarfer and hariherj and was, in my opi- nion, different from that of both the other forts o f hyaena above-mentioned. The ikin I have defcribed as corre- fponding with the canis by ana, I bought juft before my departure from the Cape o f the late lord lieutenant, or landroß o f Zwellendam', who told me, it had been prefented to him by a peafant living in the northern part of his diftridt. This fame peafant, he faid, pretended it was the ikin o f a very rare and uncommon animal. It might be, perhaps, that by this means he wiihed to enhance the value of his prefent, though very poflibly in a certain refpecft it was rare for him; for wolves are heard, I had almoft faid, every night ; are hardly ever ihot, and very feldom caught, though for this purpofe the country people build little houfes, in which they put ftinking carcafes by way of bait. The wolf creeping in here and treading on a fpring, a hatch falls down immediately, and ihuts him in. I cannot help once more repeating it, as being fome- thing peculiar, that the ikin above defcribed was covered with hairs, a great part o f which were above a foot long. As in the warmeft countries the animals are often found moft deficient with refpe£t to hair; and again as it is in the cold climates alone, efpecially againft the winter fets • in, that one fees thefe creatures protected from the feverity of the feafon by furs and long ihaggy hair; and as nature does nothing without defign, nothing without the wifeft intentions, the queftion has fuggefted itfelf to me, what V o l . L Z occa
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