Chapter 51 - A Narrative of Hunting Adventures in Southern Africa by Mayne Reid
The Honey-Guide and Honey-Eater
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 yägers 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 yägers 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 yägers 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 yägers; 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 yägers 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 yägers 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 yägers 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 yägers 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 yägers 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 yägers, as well as their dark-skinned attendants, that evening enjoyed a “surfeit of sweets.”