Groot Willem's adventure was acknowledged by all to be the most
wonderful that had occurred to any of them--even surpassing that of
Hendrik with the rhinoceros--and for a good while it continued to be the
subject of camp conversation.
During the expedition, every one of the party had either performed some
grand feat or fallen in with a remarkable adventure, except Arend. It
was not that Arend had less courage or less capacity than the rest; but,
partly, because he felt no inclination to put himself in the way of
hunting adventures, and partly that the chances had not favoured him.
One adventure he had fallen in with--literally _fallen in_ with. He had
tumbled, horse and all, into a pit-trap set by some savages for
capturing the rhinoceros! Fortunately, the sharp spike, usually placed
at the bottom of these holes, had been removed--else either Arend or the
horse would have fared worse than they did. Many a laugh had the six
young yagers at Arend's solitary adventure. I say six, for Arend always
good-naturedly joined in it himself. Arend was not the man for
adventures in the great wilderness. Had it been in the great city
instead, no doubt his fine face and handsome figure would have helped
him to many a one in the flirtation line--had he been inclined that way.
But neither did Arend care about that. He had but one ruling thought--
so Groot Willem alleged--and that was to get home to the Graaf Reinet;
and Groot usually added the reason, by giving a wink, and a word or two
about "cherry cheeks and blue eyes."
Arend, however, was not destined to see home without one other
adventure, in which all the rest had share, and which proved not only
the last they met with during that expedition, but was near being the
last of their lives!
They had changed their camp from the flowery plain to another equally
flowery, though the plants that blossomed around were of a very
different character. There were geraniums and marigolds in this plain,
as there had been in the other; but here euphorbias of different species
predominated, with cacti and other succulent plants.
Above their heads towered the tree Euphorbia, (_E. grandidens_), while
at their feet the melon-shaped variety peeped forth from the ground.
There too, were several poisonous species; among others the _Euphorbia
antiquorum_ growing side by side with the deadly belladonna lily,
(_Amaryllis belladonna_). The young yagers seemed to have arrived upon
a spot of earth that was almost wholly occupied with poison-yielding
plants!
And yet it was a lovely scene. The flowers looked as fresh and as fair
as elsewhere, and their fragrance scented the air around. Birds
disported themselves among the branches of the trees; and bees hummed
and whirred over the blossoms, imparting cheerfulness to the wild scene,
and calling up ideas of home that were, at the moment, agreeable to the
tired travellers. They had just formed camp, and were sitting quietly
down, when their attention was drawn to a bird that had perched itself
upon a low bush at no great distance from the wagons. It was not the
beauty of this bird that attracted them, for its plumage was not
beautiful, being of an ashy-brown colour upon the back, and grey below.
It was not its size, which was that of an ordinary finch; nor its song,
which was no better than a monotonous chatter of the syllables
"Kwi-kwi-kwi-kit." It was none of these things that caused the young
yagers to give their attention to the bird, but its peculiar character--
already well known to all of them. The little bird which sat upon the
bush, starting from branch to branch, jerking about its tail, and
uttering the "kwi-kwi-kit," was no other than the celebrated
"honey-guide."
They all knew it; for they had met with it several times during the
expedition, and Hans had told them its history. They all knew of its
curious habits; how it will guide a man to the nest of the wild bee, by
fluttering before him from bush to bush and rock to rock until it
reaches the spot; how it will wait until the hive has been robbed of its
honey-treasure; and then alight by the despoiled nest to feed upon the
larvae of the bees, or the fragments of honeycomb that may have been
left! They all knew this of the honey-guide, because they had followed
one before now, and proved the truth of this wonderful _instinct_, which
has been doubted by many travellers as well as naturalists.
Those points of its natural history they did not know of Hans had told
them of long before. He had told them how the bird had been classed
among the cuckoos, under the title _Cuculus indicator_--because it
shares with the true cuckoos the singular habit of depositing its eggs
in the nest of another bird; how other naturalists have formed a genus
for itself--the genus _indicator_, of which several species are known;
how the bird feeds mostly upon honey and the larvae of bees; and how
nature has given it a protection against the stings of the old ones in
the thickness of its skin: but Swartboy declared, in relation to this
matter, that the thick skin did not always save it; as he had often
found the honey-guide lying dead by the nests of the bees, and evidently
killed by their stings!
All these points in the natural history of the honey-bird were known to
the young yagers; therefore the little chatterer, that had lit upon the
adjacent bush, was no stranger to them.
And they were all right glad to see it, for a certain reason--because
they wanted some honey, and particularly at that very time, as their
sugar had run out, and they had nothing to sweeten their coffee with--a
privation to several of the party.
All leaped to their feet, therefore, with the determination to follow
the "honey-guide," go where it would.
They laid hold of their arms; and, what was still stranger, saddled and
mounted their horses, intending to follow the guide on horseback!
You will wonder at this. But when you hear that the honey-guide often
takes the hunter six or seven miles through the woods--and that not
unfrequently it guides him to the lair of a lion, or the haunt of a
black rhinoceros, instead of to the nest of a bee--you will understand
why the young yagers took these precautions.
Just as they were about starting out, a very odd-looking animal "hove in
sight." It had something of the appearance of a badger--being low set
on its legs, plantigrade in its hind-feet, and with a snout and tail
very like those of that animal. Its colour, too, and pelage, was not
unlike that of the common badger--a sombre grey above and black below,
divided by a light stripe running down each side from the ears to the
root of the tail. In size it was superior to the badger, and nearly
equalling in this respect the American glutton, or "wolverene," which it
also resembled. It had the general appearance of all the animals of the
badger family--which, though few in genera and species, is represented
by one or two in nearly every part of the globe. The animal which our
yagers saw, or its species, to speak more properly, was the
representative of that family in South Africa. It was the "ratel," or
"honey-eater," (_Mellivora capensis_).
Now this quadruped was almost as well known to our party as the bird.
They knew that its habits were equally singular; that, like the
"indicator," it possessed a "sweet tooth;" and spent most, if not all of
its time, in searching for the nests of bees and robbing them of their
honey--provided the said nests were in the ground, where it could tear
them up with its strong terrier-claws. On the other hand, when the nest
chanced to be in a tree, they knew the ratel could not reach it--this
animal not being a tree-climber. On such occasions he usually leaves
the mark of his claws upon the lower bark, and this often guides the
Hottentot hunter to a nest stored with honey. All these things the
yagers had learnt from Swartboy and Congo; and from Hans a few other
facts--such as that the ratel is found throughout all Africa--that it is
formed by naturalists into a genus of itself, like so many other
anomalous creatures of that continent--that its skin is so thick the
bees cannot pierce it with their stings, so that it devours their
honeycombs without fear of the buzzing insects--that on account of its
disagreeable odour it is sometimes known as the "stinking badger."
Other facts with which all were acquainted were, that the ratel is
accustomed to follow the "honey-guide;" and that the bird frequently
conducts the quadruped to the hive--very much in the same way as it acts
when followed by a man. _It is said_, however, on such occasions to fly
lower, and to take shorter flights, lest the badger might lose sight of
it! So says Monsieur Verreaux!
Now it was plain to the party that the ratel was at that moment in
pursuit of his profession, and in full pursuit of the indicator. The
interference, however, of the mounted yagers caused him to turn round,
and make off in another direction; and the impatient "guide," having now
gone ahead, was followed by a-much larger "tail."
On went the little creature from tree to tree, uttering its
"kwi-kwi-kit," and evidently pleased at its new "following." On rode
the young yagers directly in the wake of their guide.
Fortunately they had not far to go. The more frequently repeated
twittering of the bird, and the increased excitement which the little
creature exhibited, told the hunters they were near the nest of the
bees; and in a few minutes after the bird perched upon a particular
tree, and would fly no farther. In this tree was the hive!
They could have told that from the fact that near its roots the bark was
scratched and torn off by the claws of some animal--the claws of a
ratel, of course--and the amount of scratching showed, that more than
one of these honey-eating quadrupeds had been guided to this place of
_sweets_ to meet with bitter disappointment!
A pair of axes, with Swartboy and Congo to handle them, were now brought
from the camp; the tree soon fell under their strokes: the bees were
smoked out; and the honeycombs--a fragment or two being left as a reward
for the services of the "guide"--were carried off to camp.
The store proved one of the largest? and the six yagers, as well as
their dark-skinned attendants, that evening enjoyed a "surfeit of
sweets."