298 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Singular properties of the hide. 



sagacity to follow a little bird, called the honey- 

 guide, which flies on slowly, with a peculiar and 

 alluring note, and guides him to the place where 

 the swarm of bees have taken up their abode. 



Those bees* nests that are built in trees are 

 perfectly secure from the depredations of thi& 

 animal ; but in the first transports of rage and 

 disappointment, he gnaws and bites the trunks 

 of the trees; and the marks he leaves behind 

 him are certain indications to the inhabitants of 

 the country that honey is to be found there. 



The hide of this quadruped is so extremely 

 tough and thick, that it is almost impossible ta 

 deprive it of life, without giving it a great num- 

 ber of violent blow s on the nose ; on which ac- 

 count the Hottentots usually shoot it, or plunge* 

 a knife into its body. The shortness of the crea- 

 ture's legs will not permit him to make his escape 

 by flight, when pursued by hounds ; but he fre- 

 quently extricates himself from their clutches, 

 by biting and scratching them in a most terrible 

 manner : while, on the other hand, he is per- 

 fectly well defended from the assaults of their 

 teeth, by the looseness of his skin ; for, when a- 

 hound endeavours to bite him, it can lay hold 

 only on this part, which instantly separates from 

 the creature's body or flesh ; so that, when any 

 one also catches hold of him by the hind part of 

 his neck, and that even pretty near his head, he 

 can turn round, as it were, in his skin, and bite 

 the arm that seizes him. It is said, that such a 



