They abound in the mountains, and are a scourge to the shepherds of the plains, especially in the cold weather, when they descend and commit terrible damage among the flocks." "I thought I did not know the sound," Malchus said.

"The nights were noisy enough sometimes at the southern edge of the desert.

The packs of jackals, with their sharp yelping cry, abounded; then there was the deeper note of the hyenas, and the barking cry of troops of monkeys, and the thundering roar of the lions.

They were unpleasant enough, and at first used to keep one awake; but none of them were so lugubrious as that mournful howl I hear now.

I suppose sometimes, when there is nothing else to do, we get up hunting parties ?" "Yes," the officer replied; "it is the chief amusement of our garrisons in winter among the wild parts of the country.