A PRIMITIVE UNGULATE 



THE CONEY OR DASJE 



The name coney is familiar enough, principally be- 

 cause it occurs in the Psalms : but Dasje is not so 

 familiar, and when made use of is usually and inaccur- 

 ately spelt " dassie." The word in fact is analogous 

 to " kopje," about which we used to hear so much a 

 few years ago, and is a diminutive, in this case from a 

 word signifying badger. Neither coney nor dasje is 

 at all indicative of the real nature of this most interest- 

 ing animal, Hyrax (or Procavia) capensis. It has nothing 

 whatever to do with either rabbits or badgers ; and is 

 in fact, an ungulate animal not directly related to any 

 living form nor indeed, so far as present knowledge leads, 

 to any extinct form, but none the less a true ungulate. 

 Even its outward form, when rightly considered, be- 

 trays the ungulate. The nails on the feet are rather 

 hoofs than claws ; the fingers and toes are reduced 

 to four on the front limbs and three on the hind limbs, 

 such a reduction being a common feature of the ungu- 

 lata. The scalpel at once settles the point. For there 

 is no collar bone, and a portion of the shoulder blade 

 known as the acromion is absent, while the molar teeth 

 have a pattern which is decidedly like that of the 

 rhinoceros. They have, however, undoubtedly a like- 

 ness to rodents. To this contributes the small size 

 (for modern ungulates are unusually big), the much 

 reduced tail, and the squatting attitude generally 

 adopted. So impressed was de Buff on with these 

 matters that he wrote of the hyrax under the name of 

 " Marmotte du Cap." As the Psalmist rightly says, 

 " The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats and the 

 rocks for the coneys." This is, doubtless, one of the 

 earliest allusions to the coney. They are spoken of, as 

 everyone knows, in other parts of the Scriptures as 

 " a feeble folk," though " exceeding wise." But to 



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