WITH SCALES OR SHELLS. 



379 



roundish point. They are extremely hard, 

 and their substance resembles that of horn. 

 They are convexed on the outside, and a little 

 concave on the inner; one edge sticks in the 

 skin, while the other laps over that immedi- 

 ately behind it. Those that cover the tail, 

 conform to the shape of that part, being of a 

 dusky brown colour, and so hard, when the 

 animal has acquired its full growth, as to 

 turn a musket-ball. 



Thus armed, this animal fears nothing from 

 the efforts of all other creatures, except man. 

 The instant it perceives the approach of an 

 enemy, it rolls itself up like the hedgehog, 

 and presents no part but the cutting edges of 

 its scales to the assailant. Its long tail, which, 

 at first view, might be thought easily separ- 

 able, serves still moreto increase the animal's 

 security. This is lapped round the rest of 

 the body, and, being defended with shells 

 even more cutting than any other part, the 

 creature continues in perfect security. Its 

 shells are so large, so thick, and so pointed, 

 that they repel every animal of prey; they 

 make a coat of armour that wounds while it 

 resists, and at once protects and threatens. 

 The most cruel, the most famished quadru- 

 ped of the forest, the tiger, the panther, and 

 the hyaena, make vain attempts to force it. 

 They tread upon, they roll it about, but all to 

 no purpose; the pangolin remains safe within, 

 while its invader almost always feels the re- 

 ward of its rashness. The fox often destroys 

 the hedgehog by pressing it with his weight, 

 and thus obliges it to put forth its nose, which 

 he instantly seizes, and soon after the whole 

 body ; but the scales of the pangolin effec- 

 tually support it under any such weight, while 

 nothing that the strongest animals are capa- 

 ble of doing can compel it to surrender. 

 Man alone seems furnished with arms to con- 

 quer its obstinacy. The negroes of Africa, 

 when they find it, beat it to death with clubs, 

 and consider its flesh as a very great deli- 

 cacy. 



But, although this animal be so formidable 

 in its appearance, there cannot be a more 

 harmless, inoffensive creature when unmo- 

 lested. It is even unqualified by nature to 

 injure larger animals, if it had the disposition, 

 for it has no teeth. It should seem that the 

 bony matter, which goes in other animals to 



No. 33 & 34. 



supply the teeth, is exhausted in this in sup- 

 plying the scales that go to the covering of 

 its body. However this be, its lite seems 

 correspondent to its peculiar conformation. 

 Incapable of being carnivorous, since it has 

 no teeth, nor of subsisting on vegetable?, 

 which require much chewing, it lives entirely 

 upon insects, for which nature has fittted it 

 in a very extraordinary manner. As it has a 

 long nose, so it may naturally be supposed 

 to have a long tongue ; but, to increase its 

 length still more, it is doubled in the mouth. 

 so that when extended, it is shot out to above 

 a quarter of a yard beyond the tip of the nose. 

 This tongue is round, extremely red, and 

 covered with an unctuous and slimy liquor, 

 which gives it a shining hue. When the pan- 

 golin, therefore, approaches an ant-hill, for 

 these are the insects on which it chiefly feeds, 

 it lies down near it, concealing as much as 

 possible the place of its retreat, and stretch- 

 ing out its long tongue among the ants, keeps 

 it for some time quite immoveable. These 

 little animals, allured by its appearance, and 

 the unctuous substance with which it is 

 smeared, instantly gather upon it in great 

 numbers; and when the pangolin supposes a 

 sufficiency, it quickly withdraws the tongue 

 and swallows them at once. This peculiar 

 manner of hunting for its prey is repeated, 

 either till it be satisfied, or till the ants, 

 grown more cautious, will be allured to their 

 destruction no longer. It is against these 

 noxious insects, therefore, that its only force 

 or cunning is exerted ; and were the Negroes 

 but sufficiently sensible of its utility in de- 

 stroying one of the greatest pests to their 

 country, they would riot be so eager to kill it. 

 But it is the nature of savage men to pursue 

 the immediate good, without being solicitous 

 about the more distant benefit they remove. 

 They, therefore, hunt this animal with the 

 utmost avidity for its flesh ; and as it is slow 

 and unable to escape in an open place, they 

 seldom fail of destroying it. However, it 

 chiefly keeps in the most obscure parts of the 

 forest, and digs itself a retreat in the clefts of 

 rocks, where it brings forth its young, so that 

 it is but rarely met with, and continues a soli- 

 tary species, and an extraordinary instance 

 of the varying of nature. 



Of this animal, there is a variety which is 



3M 



