SWINGING THKIR TAILS, THE GIRAKFES AMBLED AWAY 



A 



XV 



Giraffes 



MONG the rarest and most si nodular of the larQ-e 

 1 V mammals still existin;^' to-day is undoubtedly the 

 giraffe, various forms ot which are to be found in 

 different parts ot Africa. 



The extraordinary appearance of giraftes makes us 

 think of them as strange survivals from a prehistoric 

 past — as the last representatives of a fauna long dead 

 and gone. Next to the okapi iyOcapia johustoni). which 

 was discovered in 1901 b\' Sir Harry Johnston and 

 Mr. L. Eriksson in the forests of Central AfVica. and 

 whose nearest relatives became extinct thousands of 

 years ago, the giraffe is certainly the strangestdooking 

 animal to be seen in Africa. 



"In the country of Ererait li\ed the nomad cattle- 

 breeders El Kamasia. . . . Their name for God was 

 Em Ba, and they made themselves images of Him in 

 the form of a giraffe with a hornless head." So Captain 

 INIerker tells us in his account of the origin of the Masai. 

 Perhaps this hornless giraffe was the okapi, which may 



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