THE UNSEEN WORLD 
259 
Such questions may evidence crass ignorance ; for 
beyond doubt the lacking answers will be found printed 
somewhere, though not on the veld, 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 that 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 
owing 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 civets, mongoose and the like. 
But all these are small beasties, and none of them require 
tunnels of these dimensions. What, I ask againj 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 
