the aard-vark; and, although the tamanoir has
been specially called _Myrmecophaga_, or ant-eater, I say that the
_Orycteropus_ is as good an ant-eater as he. He can break through
ant-hills quite as big and bigger--some of them twenty-feet high--he can
project as long and as gluey a tongue--twenty inches long--he can play
it as nimbly and "lick up" as many white ants, as any tamanoir. He can
grow as fat too, and weigh as heavy, and, what is greatly to his credit,
he can provide you with a most delicate roast when you choose to kill
and eat him. It is true he tastes slightly of formic acid, but that is
just the flavour that epicures admire. And when you come to speak of
"hams,"--ah! try _his_! Cure them well and properly, and eat one, and
you will never again talk of "Spanish" or "Westphalian."

Hans knew the taste of those hams--well he did, and so too Swartboy; and
it was not against his inclination, but _con amore_, that the latter set
about butchering the "goup." Swartboy knew how precious a morsel he
held between his fingers,--precious, not only on account of its
intrinsic goodness, but from its rarity; for although the aard-vark is a
common animal in South Africa, and in some districts even numerous, it
is not every day the hunter can lay his hands upon one. On the
contrary, the creature is most difficult to capture; though not to kill,
for a blow on the snout will do that.

But just as he is easily killed when you catch him, in the same
proportion is he hard to catch. He is shy and wary, scarce ever comes
out of his burrow but at night; and even then skulks so silently along,
and watches around him so sharply, that no enemy can approach without
his knowing it. His eyes are very small, and, like most nocturnal
animals, he sees but indifferently; but in the two senses of smell and
hearing he is one of the sharpest. His long erect ears enable him to
catch every sound that may be made in his neighbourhood, however slight.

The "aard-vark" is not the only ant-eating quadruped of South Africa.
There is another four-footed creature as fond of white ants as he; but
this is an animal of very different appearance. It is a creature
without hair; but, instead its body is covered all over with a regular
coat of scales, each as large as a half-crown piece. These scales
slightly overlie each other, and can be raised on end at the will of the
animal. In form it resembles a large lizard, or a small crocodile, more
th