424 
BACHAPIN ACCOUNT OF THE KHAAKA. 
18, 19 July, 
natives respecting the Widaka^ is, — that by day it hves generally in 
holes in the ground, in the same manner as the Takkaru *, but does 
not burrow so deep, and is more easily unearthed. It has a long 
tail, and which it uses in digging its hole ; (a fact so extraordinary, 
that it may, I think, be doubted : one person informed me that it 
does not dig its own burrow, but lives in that of another animal). 
It has a long snout, and a tongue which it can extend far out of its 
mouth. It lives upon ants ; and on being alarmed or disturbed 
climbs up the nearest tree for refuge. When it comes out by day to 
feed, it is exceedingly cautious ; and standing up on its hind legs, 
stretches out its neck to look around, and immediately on perceiving 
any person approaching, draws its head quickly back to its body. 
It walks on its heels to preserve its claws, and therefore, as it is said, 
imprints on the ground a foot-mark exactly like that of a rhinoceros 
in miniature. Whenever a recent track is met with, the animal is 
traced to its hole and dug out if possible, as the flesh, which is ex- 
tremely fat, is esteemed so great a delicacy that the law requires that 
every khaaka which is killed shall be brought to the Chief 
When I requested Mattivi to order his people to procure for me 
a complete skin, he would not promise to do so, although I offered 
a great price in tobacco ; and as Serrakutu was equally reluctant to 
comply with this request, it appeared not improbable that they were 
withheld by some superstitious belief relative to it : yet I was not 
more successful in my offer to purchase any other animals which the 
inhabitants would bring me. 
In the evening the Chief came, and sat with me in the waggon 
for half an hour. Neither he, nor any of his brothers, ever ap- 
proached me without asking for tobacco, notwithstanding the hand- 
some present which I had made him. As he was so careful to con- 
ceal from his friends what he had received, he could not have much 
diminished this quantity ; and his begging must therefore have pro- 
ceeded from pure covetousness. 
* The Aard-vark of the Dutch colonists ; and Myrmecophaga capeiisis, Lin. — See 
Vol. I. p. 342. 
