THE UNSEEN WORLD 
263 
common in East) is the ratel (.Mellivora ratel), allied to 
the badgers, which is another tenant of these mysterious 
holes, and which varies a diet of roots and honey by 
digging from his grave the lightly-buried Kaffir ; but 
which retires long before dawn to the depths of the 
earth. Our British badger also possesses a “ sweet 
tooth,” and in summer digs up bees’ and wasps’ nests. 
The ratel, being short-legged like a badger, has no 
RATEL. 
speed of foot; and if found in the open, can be run 
down by an active man. But once it finds itself 
cornered, it turns directly, open-mouthed, upon its 
pursuer, in the pluckiest way. Mr. Selous tells me that 
in his elephant-hunting days he frequently ran them 
down, and in every case they turned and attacked. 
The above are a few—how many more there may be 
I know not—of the animals whose presence and handi¬ 
work is ever in evidence, but which themselves belong 
to an unseen world. 
When the “sportsman” in British East Africa 
(that is, as so by law defined, the travelling hunter who 
has paid up his £50 shooting-licence—since otherwise 
