262 



ON SAFARI 



reluctantly compelled to abandon tliat prize. The 

 following month, however, our Kaffirs (this was in 

 the Transvaal) brought in another civet which they had 

 killed with assegais — quite how, I never could understand. 

 Another animal of which one may get an occasional 

 glimpse is the genet, which in East Africa I have twice 

 chased to OTound and once to a hollow tree. On the 

 latter occasion the gun-bearer who w^as with me put in 

 his hand, and though badly bitten, pulled the genet out. 





.,^" 





z^- 



r/^te 







CIVET. 



This, however, can hardly be defined as belonging to 

 the unseen world, being partly arboreal, and on one 

 occasion in the Transvaal, my friend Ingle, spying one 

 in the fork of a tree, placed a '303 bullet in its eye, and 

 the skin lies before me now. Then there are the 

 mongoose tribes — swarms of them ; yet how rarely one 

 sees these, whether in Africa or Spain. In the latter 

 land, if attended by one who knows, and prepared with 

 pick and spade to shift considerable portions of earth's 

 superficies, one may capture half-a-dozen in a single 

 burrow. In Africa the only mongoose met with are 

 mentioned at p. 33 above. 



A reclusive neighbour in South Africa (but not so 



