THE UNSEEN AVORLD 259 



Such questions may evidence crass ignorance ; for 

 beyond doubt the hicking answers ^Yill be found printed 

 somewhere, though not on the vekl, where I write these 

 notes. 



In that sense, at least, I always assured my com- 

 panion, who, whenever we encountered some noxious 

 reptile or extra-hideous insect, would invariably ask, 

 "Are you sure that tit at has been catalogued?" 



Then one cannot walk many leagues over African 

 hinterlands without coming upon holes — immense holes, 

 regular dens. What, in wonder's name, made that f you 

 ask. The answer, as a rule, will be. Oh, that's a 

 wart-hog's hole. Possibly it is ; that is, it is now 

 occupied by one of those animals. But surely no 

 wart-hog originally excavated it, for a pig is not a digger 

 — he is not " fossorial," which is, I see, the technical 

 term ; and has probably adopted a subterranean habitat 

 owiuo- to the facilities here afforded him of securing 

 desirable residences ready-made and no ground-rent to 

 pay in the shape of labour. Jackals also and porcupines 

 live in holes; so, too, do civ^ets, mongoose and the like. 

 But all these are small beasties, and none of them recjuire 

 tunnels of these dimensions. What, I ask again, made 

 that scandalous hole ? Having silenced flippant super- 

 ficial theories in respect of pigs, dogs and cats, at length 

 comes a more serious answer. The excavator was an 

 ant-bear — in Dutch, an aard-vaark or earth-pig. This 

 I have been so often assured that the solution comes to 

 bear a sort of impress of truth. But, if so, what 

 numbers of these beasts there must be ! Yet during my 

 three years' wandering amongst them, I have never set 

 eyes on the personality of the said ant-bear, nor met 

 any one who has done so, or could give even the faintest 

 description of what the fabled creature was like if you 

 did see him. 



I am not (of course) seriously doubting the existence 

 of our unseen neighbour. Far from that, since in- 

 dubitable proof lies before me that some one has actually 

 captured a specimen — and dissected him ! As witness 



