THE PANGOLIN AND THE ANTS 



with meat. It will attack, and literally saw in two with 

 the sharp edges of its carapace^ a living snake. 



THE PANGOLIN 



The pangolin is a corruption of the Malay word, 

 " Tagiling," which is the vernacular name for an animal 

 known to zoologists by the scientific name of Manis, and 

 to us in general, as the scaly ant-eater. The genus 

 Manis, of which there are some seven species, inhabits 

 both Asia and Africa. It looks, as it has been well ex- 

 pressed, " like an animated spruce fir cone." The scales 

 in fact with which it is thickly beset are brown and 

 withered-looking, and loosely attached at the base in 

 quite a vegetable fashion. They suggest that a good 

 shake will scatter them. Nevertheless, the scales are 

 very firm, and offer a double protection to their possessor. 

 When harried and worried by a dog or other carnivore 

 searching a meal, the scaly ant-eater rolls itself up into 

 something like a ball, and presents a hard smooth surface 

 to the enemy. Should the latter attempt a nearer in- 

 vestigation of the Manis, the scales contract still closer 

 to the body, and often carry with them a fragment of 

 flesh from the aggressor's nose, pinched off by their sharp 

 edges. In two parts of the world, namely in Japan and 

 in the Malay countries perhaps, indeed, the legend has 

 spread from the one place to the other the Manis is 

 believed to make another use of its scales. It erects 

 them and then pretends to be dead. The inquisitive 

 ant, in the fashion which everybody knows, wanders in 

 multitudes over the body, and creeps between the scales. 

 When a sufficient number of ants have thus begun to 

 investigate the Manis, the latter closes his scales, and 

 entering the nearest piece of water again erects his scales, 

 and laps up the ants as they float out. The food of this 



135 



