1J3u?ty S.' From the tip o f the nofe to the head behind the Iftchesv ears 5 From the ear to the ihoulder z i From the ihoulder to the anus 14 So that the whole length o f the cat was z t i T h e tail - - - - - 13 The feet from the belly meafured, The fore feet - - - - 12 Th e hind feet - — - 13 So that the height of the cat was about a foot and a half. The inteftines were half as long again as the animal, tall and all, or about fifty inches. They were full of moles and rats. A Hottentot bajlard, who had built a little cottage here near the bath, for himfelf, his wife, and his little daughter, looked upon the fleih o f wild cats, lions, tigers, and fuch like beafts o f prey, as a medicine, and much wholefomer than that of other .animals. The greater part of the company at the wells were defirous of preferring the fat,, which was thought to pofiefs not only the virtue of healing fores, but likewife to be ferviceable in the gout; and the fame notion was harboured concerning the fat of other wild beafts. It is certain, that the fat of this wild eat had a very rank and penetrating imell, and on that account probably was preferable to other fat. Another kind of cat, as it, is called, or the mode-kat, is in Africa univerfally fuppofed to pofleis a great medicinal power in its ikin to cure lumbagos, pains in the joints, gout in the hands and feet, 8cc. i f the hairy fide be worn on on the part affedted. I have likewife heard the fame at- *77;- tefted by thofe who thought they had received benefit by i t ; but as this fuppofed fpecific was fold at a very high price, I was contented for my part, with examining the ikin, by which I was convinced, that it is the fame animal as Mr. P e n n a n t , in his Synopjts and Hijlory o f Quadrupeds, has defcribed, and given a drawing of, by the name of the Perjian Cat; and M. Buffon, Vol. IX. T . 24. by the name of the Caracal. The hair o f this ikin, it muft be owned, is very fine and ib ft; but probably there are many other ikins that, applied with an equal degree of faith, would have the lame effedts. The colour of the upper part of it is of a very light red, fprinkled with g rey; under the belly it is light-coloured; the upper part of the ears, which have tufts of hair on the tips of them, is dark brown, fprinkled with grey. This animal is rather long in the body, and about two feet in height, with a peaked nofe. They have a third kind o f cat in Africa, which, in its motions-and attitudes, is like our common cat, and is called at the Cape the tiger-kat, and the tiger bofcb-kat. From the two ikins which I brought with me, and which I fhall perhaps have occafion to defcribe more accurately, I cannot find but that the tiger-cat is the fame animal as M. Buffon calls the ferval-cat. As to the animal to which M. V osmaer gives the name of the African civet-cat, I much doubt if it be to be found at the Cape of Good Hope. The byjlrix crijlata of L innaeus, called by the colonifts here yzter-varken (or iron-hog,) is the fame animal as the Germans carry about for a fhow in our country by the name of porcupine, and does much damage to the cabbages and 3 ■ garden
27f 72-1
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