THE BIG GAME OF AFRICA 



has two horns with a rather pronounced bump in front 

 below the horns. The other variety, the so-called five- 

 horned giraffe, which is generally found on the Guaso 

 Ngishu Plateau, has, behind the ordinary two horns, two 

 smaller hornlike projections — hardly worth the name of 

 horns — and the bump on the forehead grown out into a 

 more hornlike projection than that of the ordinary giraffe. 

 The height and color of the giraffes vary greatly. The 

 younger the giraffe is, the lighter is his skin, and it is only 

 the old bulls that have very dark, brown spots. The height 

 of giraffes varies a good deal. Full-grown males have 

 been shot in Africa measuring from sixteen to seventeen 

 feet six inches. Record bulls of South Africa have been 

 as tall as nineteen feet and over, but in that part of the 

 country the Boers have now almost exterminated the 

 stately animal. The reason for this was that the white 

 settlers coveted both the giraffe's meat and the skin, which 

 they use for harness, traces, and whips. The natives also 

 kill the giraffe whenever they have a chance to, partly 

 because they are very fond of its meat and the great 

 amount of marrow in its big leg bones, and partly because 

 they use the strong sinews of the animal for their bow- 

 strings, instead of twine, and for the strings of a kind of 

 rude musical instrument, on which they play their weary 

 monotonous tunes. 



