69

ICHNEUMON.

THERE are several species of this tribe of animals,
nearly a dozen being found in Africa. The Egyptian
ichneumon, also known by the name of Pharoah’s rat,
is Very common in that country, and extremely useful
to the inhabitants as a destroyer of vermin.

“The ichneumon, at the head of the weasel tribe for
utility, abounds in all the southern parts of Asia, from
Egypt to Java, and is also found in Africa, particularly
about the Cape of Good Hope. Its usual size and
appearance is that of the marten, only the hair, which
is of a grizzly black, is rougher, nor is the tail so
bushy at the end; but having been long domesticated,
there are many varieties both of size and colour. It
is an active, strong, and courageous animal; it attacks
every living thing that it is able to overcome; it fears
neither the open force of the dog, nor the insidious
strength of the cat, the claws of the vulture, nor the
poison of the viper, and as indiscriminately preys upon
all kinds of flesh, rats, mice, serpents, or lizards.
While eating, it sits upright, and uses its fore feet to
bring its food to its mouth. Its peculiar value to the
Kigyptians, however, consists in its being the determined
persevering enemy of the crocodile, whose eggs it searches
out and destroys, and whose young it kills ere they
reach the water, for which it was deified and wor-
shipped by the ‘wise’ Egyptians.”

It generally contrives to seize a snake by the throat,
in such a way that it cannot itself be injured by the
fangs of the reptile. It is thus alluded to by the poet,