THE GIRAFFE. 



573 



enables it to see for a great distance. The natives employ the pitfall also. 

 For this purpose a very curiously constructed pit is dug, being about 

 ten feet in depth, proportionably wide, and having a wall or bank of 

 earth extending from one side to the other, and about six or seven feet 

 in height. When the Giraffe is caught in one of these pits, its fore-hmbs 

 lall on one side of the wall, and its hind-legs on the other, the edge of 

 the wall passing under its abdomen. The poor creature is thus balanced, 

 as it were, upon its belly across the wall, and in spite of all its plunging, 

 is unable to obtain a foothold sufficiently firm to enable it to leap out. 

 The pitfalls for the capture of the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros are 

 furnished with a sharp stake at the bottom ; but it is found by experi- 

 ence that, in the capture of the Giraffe, the transverse wall is even more 

 deadly than the sharpened stake. The Giraffe is easily traced by its 

 " spoor," or footmarks, which are eleven inches in length, pointed at 

 the toe and I'ounded at the heel. The pace at which the animal has 

 gone is ascertained by the depth of the impression, and by the scatter- 

 ing of disturbed soil along the path. 



The slain Giraffe is used for many purposes. Its skin is made into 

 leather, its tail-tuft forms a fly-flapper, its hoofs are worked up like horn. 

 Yet it must be said, for the credit of the natives of Africa, that they 

 pride themselves more on possessing living than dead Giraffes. In the 

 villages of the interior, the traveler will often see a pair of Giraffes 

 raising their gentle heads high over some garden-wall, or else walking 

 about the streets like cows. When Brehm was traveling on the Blue 

 Nile, a Giraffe came to the boat as if to welcome him. It approached 

 writh perfect confidence, and eat bread out of his hand as if it had been 

 an old acquaintance. It came every day afterward to be caressed. The 

 name Girafe, the naturalist adds, is a corruption of the Arabic Serafe, 

 which means the "lovable," and fitly designates this noble creature. 



