his moving the fore and hind legs of one side simultaneously,
he attains a great pace, owing to the length
of his stride, and his bounding trot is more than a
match for any but a superior horse.
The hoof is as beautifully proportioned as that of
the smallest gazelle, and his lengthy legs and short
back give him every advantage for speed and endurance.
There is a rule to be observed in hunting
the giraffe on horseback: the instant he starts, he
must be pressed—it is the speed that tells upon him,
and the spurs must be at work at the very commencement
of the hunt, and the horse pressed along at his
best pace; it must be a race at top speed from the
start, but, should the giraffe be allowed the slightest
advantage for the first five minutes, the race will bo
against the horse.
I was riding “ Filfil,” my best- horse for speed, but
utterly useless for the gun. I had a common regulation
sword hanging on my saddle in lieu of the long Arab
broadsword that I had lost at Obbo, and starting at
full gallop at the same instant as the giraffes, away we
went over the beautiful park. Unfortunately Eicharn
was a bad rider, and I, being encumbered with a rifle,
had no power to use the sword. I accordingly trusted
to. ride them down and 'to get a shot, but I felt that
the unsteadiness of my horse would render it very
uncertain. The wind whistled in my ears as we flew
along over the open plain. The grass was not more
than a foot high, and the ground hard;—the giraffes
about four hundred yards distant steaming along, and
raising a cloud of dust from the dry earth, as on this
side of the mountains there had been no rain. Filfil
was a contradiction; he loved a hunt and had no fear
of wild animals, but he went mad at the sound of a
gun. Seeing the magnificent herd of about fifteen
giraffes before him, the horse entered into the excitement
and needed no spur—down a slight hollow, flying
over the dry buffalo holes, now over a dry watercourse
and up the incline on the other side—then again on
the level, and the dust in my eyes from the cloud
raised by the giraffes showed that we were gaining in
the race; misericordia!—low j ungle lay before us— the
giraffes gained it, and spurring forward through a
perfect cloud of dust now within a hundred yards of
the game we shot through the thorny bushes. In
another minute or two I was close up, and a splendid
bull giraffe was crashing before me like a locomotive
obelisk through the mimosas, bending the elastic boughs
before bim in his irresistible rush, which sprang back
with a force that would have upset both horse and
rider had I not carefully kept my distance. The jungle
seemed alive with the crowd of orange red, the herd