lie staggered a few paces and fell headlong into the
bush. Hurrah! for the Ceylon No. 10 !—however,
neither the second barrel, nor a shot with the Manton
2-ounce, produced any effect. It was a glorious sight
to see the herd of upwards of a hundred of. these
superb animals close up at the alarm of the shots, and
pelt away in a dense body through the dark green
mimosa bush that hardly reached to their shoulders ;
but pursuit was useless. My giraffe was not quite
dead, and, the throat having been cut by the Arabs
and Eicharn, we attempted to flay our game; this
was simply impossible. The seroot fly was in
swarms about the carcase, thousands were buzzing
about our ears and biting like bull-dogs : the blood
was streaming from our necks, and, as I wore no
sleeves, my naked arms suffered terribly. I never ■;
saw such an extraordinary sight; although we had
killed our giraffe, we could not take possession; it
was no wonder that camels and all domestic animals
were killed by this horrible plague, the only wonder
was the possibility of wild animals resisting the
attack. The long tails of the giraffes are admirable
fly-whippers, but they would be of little service
against such a determined and bloodthirsty enemy
as the seroot. They were now like a swarm of
bees, and we immediately made war upon the
scourge, by lighting several fires within a few feet
to windward of the giraffe; when the sticks blazed
briskly, we piled green grass upon the tops, and
quickly produced a smoke that vanquished the enemy.
It was now about 3 p .m. and intensely ho t; I
had been in constant exercise since 6 a .m . therefore
I determined upon luncheon under the shade of a
welcome mimosa, upon which I had already hung
my water-skin to cool. We cut some long thin
strips of flesh from the giraffe, and lighted a fire
of dry babanoose wood expressly for cooking. This
species of wood is exceedingly inflammable, and
burns like a torch; it is intensely hard, and in
colour and grain it is similar to lignum vitae. The
festoons of giraffe flesh were hung upon forked sticks,
driven into the ground to leeward of the fire, while
others were simply thrown upon the embers by my
men, who, while the food was roasting, employed
themselves in skinning the animal, and in eating the
flesh raw. • The meat was quickly roasted, and was
the best I have ever tasted, fully corroborating the
praises I had frequently heard of giraffe meat from
the Arab hunters. It would be natural to suppose
that the long legs of this animal would furnish the
perfection of marrow bones, but these are a disappointment,
as the bones of the giraffe are solid,
like those of the elephant and hippopotamus; the
long tendons of the legs are exceedingly prized by
the Arabs in lieu of thread for sewing leather, also
for guitar strings.
“ After luncheon, I took my little Fletcher rifle,
and strolled down to the spot from whence I had
fired the shot, as I wished to measure the distance,
but no sooner had I arrived at the place, than I