After this they made their toilet, and licked the blood from their chaps. They laughed as only mboyos do, saying, “How well we corralled the kambis! only a few of them escaped. How sweet they tasted! What a pity we could not eat all those we killed, and had to leave so much meat! but mboyos can only eat so much and no more.”
Looking toward the place where so much of the kambi meat had been left, they saw two large vultures alighting upon the carcasses and said, “How keen is the sight of the vultures! we have left them a good meal.” The two vultures made a bountiful repast and said to themselves: “Soon it will be sunset. To-morrow we will come again.”
In the mean time the mboyos had departed for the thickest part of the forest.
That same night could have been seen at some distance through the dim moonlight, for the moon was on the wane, a pack of ugly-looking striped hyenas. As they walked along, they looked queer, with their forelegs higher than their hind ones; they were prowling in search of food. Twice they all gave a peculiar cry, horrid to listen to, which filled the country for miles with its reverberations.
They walked silently, sniffing the air as they went along. Suddenly they scented meat. At this discovery there was great excitement among all of them, for they wanted a meal badly, being very hungry. The meat they scented was that of the kambis which the mboyos had killed.
“A pack of ugly-looking striped hyenas”
They hastened their pace and reached the carcasses of the kambis, and soon all were busy tearing the flesh, holding the pieces firmly on the ground with their forepaws, which are armed with big heavy claws.
They ate every particle of the meat; only the bare bones were left. Then they departed, grinning and saying: “If other hyenas come here, they will find only bones. We do not care. We have had a bountiful meal.” Then they went toward the forest and disappeared in its depths, not stopping until they came to a very dark, dense region. Suddenly, like the mboyos, they gave in chorus a hyena concert which was something unearthly and fearful.