_Vultures._--On passing the carcass of a bullock (says Captain Skinner,)
we had a proof of the keenness of the vulture's scent. An hour before
not one was seen; nor was the place, being so wild and far removed from
all habitations, likely to be haunted by them: yet now they thronged
every tree in the neighbourhood. There could not have been less than
four or five hundred.
_Jackalls._--In some parts of India the howling of innumerable jackalls
is never out of your ear, from the minute night falls to the first dawn
of day. Captain Skinner says, until he became familiar to the screaming
sound, he used to start from his sleep, and fancy some appalling
calamity had driven the inhabitants of a neighbouring town to rash forth
in fear and madness from their homes. Such frightful clamour might
attend an earthquake or a deluge. The animals come up close to your very
doors in large packs, and roar away without any apparent object,
frequently standing a longtime in one place, as a dog does when "baying
the moon."
_Narrow Streets._--In grand Cairo, if you unfortunately meet a string of
masked beauties upon donkies, you must make a rapid retreat, and resign
yourself to be squeezed to a mummy against the wall for daring to stand
in their course, if your curiosity should tempt you to do so.
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