\\'itb riashli'-lit and Rifle ^ 



giraffes niav have l)c:en attackc-d l)y tlie rinderpest, but 

 I have seen no absolute proof of this. The giraffe has- 

 suffered more in any case from other enemit^s. The 

 European and the Askari have been much more destruc- 

 tive. According as the hunting of ek-jihants in East 

 Africa has become more difficult, and the pursuit of the 

 rhinoceros more- dangerous, that of so easy a |)re)' as 

 the giraffe has grown in popularity. Every European 

 hankers after the- killing ot at least one, if not several, 

 specimens. There have been districts, too, where the 

 Askari haxc literally used the giraffes for tai'get-practice. 

 So long as it was an understood thing that the black 

 soldiers might practise their rille-shooting on the l)ig 

 game, so as to make themselves marksmen in the event 

 of war, and so long as the "preservation ot wild lite" 

 was a dead letter, so long did it seem that there was no 

 hope of the girafies escaping speedy annihilation. iNIuch, 

 how^ever, has been done by the Protection ot (lame 

 Conference in London, and especially by the- regulations 

 of Count (n')tzen, tor (jerman ELast Africa. 



Muhammadans do not eat giratle-llesh, or tTse the 

 Sudanesx; Askari would i)robably have? made still greater 

 ravages among the animals. Even the natix'es hunt 

 thcmi. I'oisoncid arrows are made use ol, and more 

 particularly pitdioles. ddiey are well hidden, and the 

 giraffes caiuiot easiU (I<:tect them, as they dei;end more 

 on thcMr eyesight than their sense of smell. Thus these 

 " eye-animals," as 1 )r. Zells calls ihem, tmd great danger 

 in the pitfalls, unlike the rhinoceroses and elephants 

 which are " nose-animals." 



314 



