The hyena

The narrator, a young white man at an East African trading ranch, becomes obsessed with a towering fetish-man named Senecoza whose presence inspires fear among local tribes and uneasy suspicion in the narrator. Strange incidents—a chief found mauled by hyenas and a bold daytime hyena sighting—link the animal to the fetish-man in the settlers' minds, heightening tensions on the veldt. The narrator's dislike hardens into hatred as cultural prejudice, rivalry, and foreboding intermingle. Arrival of a spirited young woman at the ranch complicates matters by exposing social differences and prompting closer contact between the settlers and the natives.