NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



is highly delighted. Often when unmercifully 

 teased she will pretend to be angry, and growls in 

 a harsh, grating way, loud and long, but she never- 

 theless continues to bite and worry in play. I placed 

 a young ratel with her one day, and she, being unduly 

 rough with it, an assistant brought a stout stick 

 and belaboured her with vigour ; but he might as 

 well have beaten a door-mat. She didn't mind it 

 in the least, and rather enjoyed the thumping. It 

 was only when he happened to tap her on the nose 

 that she lost her temper and growled like the sound 

 of half a dozen men filing iron ; and her eyes flashed 

 like green fire in the gloom. However, ten minutes 

 later she was lying on her back and crooning with 

 delight, while the same man tickled her ribs with 

 his fingers. 



Her claws were growing rather long, and she had 

 taken advantage of the fact, and had started to 

 tunnel a hole through the brick wall at the back of 

 her cage, so we decided to clip her nails. She 

 thought it fine fun when we tied her up in a mealie 

 sack, but when we cut sundry holes in the bag and 

 began pulling her legs through, she evidently 

 thought we were up to something and grew sus- 

 picious ; so fiercely did she struggle and so strong 

 was she that it took three grown men three-quarters 

 of an hour to cut her toe-nails. She bent her fore 

 paws and a strong man failed to straighten out the 

 limbs, although he had the advantage of gripping 

 her by the paw with a gloved hand. The Honey 



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