The Young Yagers: A Narrative of Hunting Adventures in Southern Africa

by Mayne Reid

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).