The covenant - James A. Michener [203]
As they moved north they shot only such food as they required, except one morning when Dikkop became irritated with a hyena that insisted upon trying to grab her share of an antelope he had shot. Three times he tried in vain to drive the beast away, and when she persisted he shot her. This might have occasioned no comment from Adriaan but for the fact that when she died she left behind a baby male hyena with fiery black eyes; she had wanted the meat to feed him, and now he was abandoned, snapping his huge teeth at Dikkop whenever he approached.
'What's out there?' Adriaan called.
'Baby hyena, Baas,' Dikkop replied.
'Bring him here!'
So Dikkop made a feint, leaped back, and planted his foot on the little beast's neck, subduing him so that he could be grabbed. Struggling and kicking but making no audible protest, the baby hyena was brought before Adriaan, who said immediately, 'We've got to feed him.' So Dikkop chewed up bits of tender meat, placing it on his finger for the animal to lick off, and by the end of the third day the two men were competing with each other to see who would have the right to feed the little beast.
'Swartejie, we'll call him,' Adriaan said, something like Blackie or the Little Black One, but the hyena assumed such a menacing stance that Adriaan had to laugh. 'So you think you're a big Swarts already?' And that's what he was called.
He showed the endearing characteristics of a domesticated dog without losing the impressive qualities of an animal in the wild. Because his fore-quarters were strong and high, his rear small and low, he lurched rather than walked, and since his mouth was enormous, with powerful head muscles to operate the great, crunching jaws, he could present a frightening appearance, except that his innate good nature and his love of Adriaan, who fed and roughhoused with him, made his face appear always to be smiling. Short tail, big ears, wide-set eyes, he made himself into a cherished pet whose unpredictable behavior supplied a surprise a day.
He was a scavenger, but he certainly lacked a scavenger's heart, for he did not slink and was willing to challenge the largest lion if a good carcass was available. But once when the two men came upon a covey of guinea fowl and wounded one, Swarts was thrown into a frenzy of fear by the bird's flapping wings and flying feathers. As winter approached and the highveld proved cold, whenever Adriaan went to his sleeping quarterseland skin formed like a bag, with soft ostrich feathers sewn into a blankethe would find Swarts sleeping on his springbok pillow, eyes closed in blissful repose, his muscles twitching now and then as he dreamed of the hunt.
'Move over, damnit!'
The sleeping hyena would groan, lying perfectly limp as Adriaan shoved him to one side, but as soon as the master was in the bed, Swarts would snuggle close and often he would snore. 'You! Damnit! Stop snoring!' and Adriaan would shove him aside as if he were an old wife.
They saw animals in such abundance that no man could have counted them, or even estimated their numbers. Once when they were crossing an upland where the grass was sweet, they saw to the east a vast movement, ten miles, twenty miles, fifty miles across, coming slowly toward them, raising a dust that obliterated the sun.
'What to do?' Dikkop asked.
'I think we stand where we are,' Adriaan replied, not at all pleased with his answer but unable to think of any other.
Even Swarts was afraid, whimpering and drawing close to Adriaan's leg.
And then the tremendous herd approached, not running, not moving in fear. It was migration time, and in obedience to some deep impulse the animals were leaving one feeding ground and heading to another.
The herd was composed of only three species: vast numbers of wildebeest, their beards swaying in