230 THE HONEY BADGER 



detail of this creature's somewhat lengthy bill of 

 fare — as it is with other items of the creation- — it 

 is far from the only comestible upon which the 

 honey badger supports itself. I have seen several 

 of these creatures, and once, unfortunately, was 

 reluctantly compelled to kill one, which I found 

 on skinning him contained a large number of 

 half-grown locusts. But in addition to honey 

 and insects of various kinds, including white and 

 other ants, the honey badger is a great destroyer 

 of rats and mice, in pursuit of which he has been 

 furnished by nature with ample means of bur- 

 rowing for their nests. 



The unfortunate honey badger I was com- 

 pelled to kill was first espied during the morning 

 march by one of my carriers in the Barue region 

 of Zambezia. Casting discipline to the winds, 

 and his load after it, the misguided porter dashed 

 off in pursuit. Supposing that his disappearance 

 was occasioned by other causes, I paid no atten- 

 tion to the matter until loud yells from some 

 distance in the direction which he had taken 

 intimated the occurrence of some incident of an 

 untoward character. Fearing snake-bite, or some 

 such mishap, I hurried in the direction whence 

 the sounds came, wondering as I did so whether 

 my lancet and permanganate of potassium were 

 fairly accessible, but when I arrived the following 

 tableau presented itself — The carrier, with an 

 expression of face in which pain and alarm were 

 admirably depicted, was executing a kind of 

 danse fantastique and roaring lustily, whilst from a 

 portion of his anatomy which the late Dr. Busby 



