86 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MAMMALIA. 



and especially when hunted, the Vlacke Vark is a very 

 dangerous animal ; for though it will not turn out of its 

 way to give chase, yet, if brought to bay, or forced to 

 extremity, it attacks with furfous impetuosity, and strikes 

 with its tusks, which are dreadful weapons: it has been 

 known to cut with one stroke completely through the 

 fleshy part of a man's thigh. We learn that, though this 

 animal is used as food by the colonists, the Hottentots, 

 and Bechuanas, it is rejected by the Coast Caffres, who 

 are much more particular as to what they eat than any 

 other natives of South Africa, and consider as an inferior 

 class the persons who consume as food the articles which 

 Ihey hold as prohibited. The top of the head, the up- 

 per part of the neck, and the anterior part of the back 

 are covered with very long and rigid bristles of a black- 



&V^ , 

 / 





44 African Boar. 



