THE MOONGUS. 239 
pointed snout, narrow body, short legs, and flexible form, permit them to insinuate them- 
selves into marvellously small crevices, and to seek and destroy their prey in localities 
where it might well deem itself secure. There are many species of the genus Herpestes, 
or “creeper,” one of which, the Garangan, has already been mentioned. 
The common Ichneumon, or Pharaoh’s Rat, as it is popularly but most improperly 
termed, is plentifully found in Egypt, where it plays a most useful part in keeping down 
the numbers of the destructive quadrupeds and the dangerous reptiles. Small and insig- 
nificant as this animal appears, it is a most dangerous foe to the huge crocodile, feeding 
largely upon its eggs, and thus preventing the too rapid increase of these fierce and 
fertile reptiles. Snakes, rats, lizards, mice, and various birds, fall a prey to this Ichneumon, 
which will painfully track its prey to its hiding-place, and wait patiently for hours until 
it makes its appearance, or will quietly creep up to the unsuspecting animal, and flinging 
itself boldly upon it destroy it by rapid bites with its long sharp teeth. 
Taking advantage of these admirable qualities, the ancient Egyptians were wont to 
tame the Ichneumon, and permit it the free range of their houses, and on account of its 
ICHNEU MON. —Herpestes Ichneumon. 
habits paid it divine honours as an outward emblem of the Deity considered with regard 
to His sin-destroying merey. There is much more in the symbolization of those old 
Egyptians than we deem, and they looked deeper into the character and the causes of 
outward forms than we generally suppose. Although the diminutive size of this creature 
renders it an impotent enemy to so large and well mailed a reptile as the crocodile, yet 
it causes the destruction of innumerable crocodiles annually by breaking and devouring 
their eggs. The egg of the crocodile is extremely small, when the size of the adult reptile 
is taken into consideration, so that the Ichneumon can devour several of them at a meal. 
The colour of this animal is a brown, plentifully grizzled with grey, each hair being 
ringed alternately with grey and brown. The total length of the animal is about three 
feet three inches, the tail measuring about eighteen inches. The scent-gland of the 
Ichneumon is very large in proportion to the size of its bearer, but the substance which 
it secretes has not as yet been held of any commercial value. The claws are partially 
retractile. 
The Moonaus, sometimes called the INDIAN ICHNEUMON, is, in its Asiatic home, as 
useful an animal as the Egyptian Ichneumon in Africa. In that country it is an 
