But it shan't be so any longer; I stand up for the aard-vark; and, although the tamanoir has been specially called _Myrmecophaga_, or ant-eater, I say that the _Orycteropus_ is as good an ant-eater as he.

He can break through ant-hills quite as big and bigger--some of them twenty-feet high--he can project as long and as gluey a tongue--twenty inches long--he can play it as nimbly and "lick up" as many white ants, as any tamanoir.

He can grow as fat too, and weigh as heavy, and, what is greatly to his credit, he can provide you with a most delicate roast when you choose to kill and eat him.

It is true he tastes slightly of formic acid, but that is just the flavour that epicures admire.

And when you come to speak of "hams,"-- ah! try _his_! Cure them well and properly, and eat one, and you will never again talk of "Spanish" or "Westphalian." Hans knew the taste of those hams--well he did, and so too Swartboy; and it was not against his inclination, but _con amore_, that the latter set about butchering the "goup." Swartboy knew how precious a morsel he held between his fingers,--precious, not only on account of its intrinsic goodness, but from its rarity; for although the aard-vark is a common animal in South Africa, and in some districts even numerous, it is not every day the hunter can lay his hands upon one.