Of this animal many very absurd stories have been told, amongst which
not the least ridiculous is, that it watches its opportunity when the
huge crocodile of the Nile slumbers upon the river bank, and, artfully
inducing the monster to yawn by tickling his nostril with its tail,
rushes fearlessly and with wondrous agility between the terrible jaws
and their formidable rows of teeth, and, forcing its daring way down its
throat, retains possession of its strange citadel until it has destroyed
its unwieldy victim, when it gnaws its way out, and leaves the carcase
to wither in the sun. Other travellers have pretended to contradict the
above story, but their mode of doing so involves a piece of absurdity no
less glaring than the equally unfounded legend they assume to themselves
the merit of correcting; for by their account the Ichneumon does not
enter the throat of the crocodile with a hostile intent at all, neither
does it use its tail to cause that creature to open its jaws, for of that
is there no need, seeing that the crocodile opens them of his own will,
and likewise with pleasure allows the Ichneumon to enter for the purpose
of clearing his throat of swarms of tormenting insects which lodge
therein, and by their stinging produce intolerable pain. I can however
assure my readers that this subject has been, since the above conflicting
statements reached us, effectually cleared up; and you may confidently
rely upon it that the Ichneumon no more enters the crocodile’s mouth
whether as a friend or as an enemy, whether to destroy him or destroy his
tormentors the flies, than that he attacks him while awake.
The Ichneumon is shaped somewhat like a ferret, but is rather more
slender in its form, and its head is likewise longer and narrower; it
is also an animal of far greater activity and lightness of movement,
being able to clear at one spring a distance of a couple of yards. It
is further a most expert climber, and it will be a very high wall indeed
that will confine it within an enclosure. The colour of the Ichneumon is
a brownish grey, or a light brown barred with white; the animal indeed
appears speckled with a dirty white, but it is so only in appearance,
the fact being, that each several hair has brown and white rings upon
it. Upon the back, sides, and tail, these rings are small, and the hair
longer than upon the head and extremities of its limbs; hence these
latter parts appear of a darker hue. The hair upon the feet is very short
and thin, and they are nearly as naked as those of the common rat. The
tail of the Ichneumon is very long, usually one-sixth longer than its
body, and upon its extremity is a tuft of very long black hair. The hair
of this creature is drier, thicker, and weaker, than in any other member
of the same genus.
The length of a full-grown Ichneumon, from the tip of the nose to the end
of the tail, is about two feet six inches, of which the tail occupies
about sixteen inches, and the body fourteen. The length of the head is
about three inches, measuring from the back of the ears to the point of
the muzzle. The height of the Ichneumon at the most elevated part of the
back is about six inches; but this of course varies according to the
animal’s position at the time of measurement.
The habits of the Ichneumon present a sort of admixture of those of the
ferret and the cat; like the former, it delights in blood, and where
it has once fastened itself, maintains a tenacious hold; but like the
latter, and unlike the former, it has but little stomach for braving
danger, and will rather go without its dinner than run the chance of a
battle in obtaining it. He is strictly a nocturnal animal, and usually
remains in his covert until the shades of evening begin to fall around,
when he sallies forth on his career of havoc and blood. Were it not
necessary for the satisfying of his appetite, I doubt whether he would
leave his haunt at all, so timid is he: he steals along the ground with
light and cautious steps, his motions resembling the gliding of the
snake rather than the progressive steps of the quadruped. His sharp,
vigilant, sparkling black eyes are anxiously reconnoitring every side of
him, and carefully examining the character and bearings of every object
which meets his view; stealthily he creeps along until he comes upon
the spot where the crocodile has hidden her eggs in the sand; nimbly
and cleverly he pounces upon them, guided to their place of concealment
by his exquisite sense of smell, and, biting a hole in their side,
banquets on their contents. It is thus that the Ichneumon thins the
numbers of that formidable reptile the crocodile, not by directing its
attacks against that creature himself, but by insidiously searching
after and destroying his embryo offspring. The Ichneumon likewise kills
and devours with extreme greediness such small snakes and lizards as
are common in its native country, many of which are highly dangerous,
and all annoying enough to make their destruction desirable, to which
the Ichneumon appears guided by a powerful instinct. It is sometimes
bitten in these encounters, when it is said immediately to search for and
devour the root of a certain plant, said to be an antidote against the
bite of the most venomous reptile. It is alleged that this little animal
will frequently kill even the Cobra di Capello. Lucan in his Pharsalia
describes the manner in which it contrives to destroy the Asp, one of the
most poisonous serpents in existence. The passage I refer to has been
translated thus:--
Thus oft, the Ichneumon on the banks of Nile
Invades the deadly Aspic by a wile;
While artfully his slender tail is play’d,
The serpent darts upon the dancing shade.
Then turning on the foe with swift surprise,
Full on the throat the nimble seizer flies.
The gasping snake expires beneath the wound,
His gushing jaws with poisonous floods abound,
And shed the fruitless mischief on the ground.
In consequence of the vigilance and success of this little animal in
destroying these noxious creatures, he was held in great veneration by
the Egyptians and Hindoos; but by the former he was actually regarded as
a disguised divinity, clothed in that form for the purpose of putting
his benevolent purposes into practice with the greater readiness; and
we accordingly find him occupying a prominent position in the sacred
symbols of that people, who were indeed commonly in the habit of deifying
whatever afforded them peculiar benefit of any kind, as they likewise
adored the river Nile, on account of the fertilizing effect produced by
its periodical inundations.
The Ichneumon is said, if taken young, to be capable of perfect
domestication, to form a strong attachment to the person who reared him,
as well as to the house he inhabits; whence from his zeal and activity
in the destruction of rats and mice, he forms a valuable substitute for
the cat, which indeed he is in Egypt used instead of. He is also said to
be very domestic in his habits, quite a tarry-at-home kind of gentleman,
and, unlike puss, never on any account given to ramble; when lost, he is
said to seek his patron with indefatigable zeal until he finds him, and
to express his joy at rejoining him by the most tender and affectionate
caresses. When he eats, however, nature asserts her prerogative, and the
natural disposition of the animal resumes its place, whence it had for a
time been driven by artificial means.
Indeed it requires but little to awaken in this creature all its natural
fierceness and love of slaughter, notwithstanding that so much has been
said and written of its amiability and docility. Mr D’Obsonville, in his
“Essay on the Nature of Animals,” gives an account of a domesticated
individual which he had in his possession, which places its disposition
in a correct point of view. He got the animal very young, and fed it
upon milk, and as it grew older, upon baked meat, mixed with rice. He
states that it soon became even tamer than a cat, would come to his
call, and if at liberty, follow him everywhere, even in his walks. One
day Mr D’Obsonville brought him a small living water-serpent, curious to
ascertain how far his instinct would carry him against a creature with
which he had been hitherto totally unacquainted. “His emotion,” says Mr
D’Obsonville, “seemed at first to be that of astonishment mixed with
anger, for his hair became erect; but in an instant after, he slipped
behind the reptile, and with remarkable swiftness and agility leaped upon
its head, seized it, and crushed it between his teeth. This essay and
new aliment seemed to have awakened in him his innate and destructive
voracity, which till then had given way to the gentleness he had acquired
from his education. I had about my house several curious kinds of fowls,
among which he had been brought up, and which till then he had suffered
to go and come unmolested and unregarded; but a few days after, when he
found himself alone, he strangled them every one, ate a little, and, as
it appeared, drank the blood of two.”
I have already stated that the Ichneumon is said to eat of the leaves or
root of a certain plant in the event of his being bitten by a poisonous
serpent. I revert to the circumstance, because it is an extraordinary
one, inasmuch as the Indians follow the example of the animal, and use
the same plant successfully as an antidote when they themselves happen
to get a bite, and call the plant after the animal. This is curious,
as being parallel with the case of the Guacomithy or Serpent Hawk of
South America, mentioned in one of my papers on Serpent Charming; nor
is it upon light authority that I relate this fact of the Ichneumon. Mr
Percival, that close and scrupulous observer, saw the experiment tried
of presenting a snake to the animal in a closed room, when, instead of
attacking, it did all in its power to avoid it. On the snake, however,
being carried out of the house, and laid near its antagonist in a
plantation, he immediately darted at and soon destroyed it. The Ichneumon
then retired to a wood, and ate a portion of that plant which is said to
be an antidote to the serpent’s bite, and no harm came to him, although
he had received a bite in the encounter.
I for my part can speak but little for the gentleness of the Ichneumon,
or the facility with which it may be tamed, having one in my own
possession, which has now for a considerable period baffled all my
endeavours to domesticate it, and will not even now suffer me to approach
the case in which it is kept, without growling fiercely at me, and
spitting in the manner of an enraged cat, springing also against the
bars of its prison, and using its utmost endeavours to fly in my face.
I have tried starvation, high feeding, kindness, chastisement, hard
usage, and tenderness, all by turns, and as yet unsuccessfully. I was
never so baffled in taming an animal before, though the polecat, weasel,
fox, and badger, have with the otter successively owned my mastery,
and acknowledged me as their subjugator. I have not even handled this
animal yet, unless with a thick glove upon my hand, and even with that
protection I have received several severe bites. I saw one, however,
in the Royal Zoological Gardens some time ago, which was very tame,
and would suffer itself to be caressed even by strangers; so I shall
persevere; and should I eventually succeed in taming the little savage,
depend upon it the reader shall be advertised of the fact, and of all the
circumstances attendant thereupon.
Until lately the Ichneumon had not a well-determined name in the
methodical catalogues. Naturalists have mostly described it rather by
character than figure. Figures were indeed given by Gesner, Aldrovandi,
and others, but not sufficiently distinct to guard against mistake. Even
Buffon mistook the Mangouste for it, to which he has applied all the
descriptions properly belonging to the Ichneumon. The name “Ichneumon”
is Greek, and is indicative of the habits of the animal, and was first
applied to it by Herodotus.
I trust that the above sketch may serve to point out the animal and its
habits to the reader with sufficient distinctness.