142 NATUKE AND SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA 



the Orange River ; they speak a singular language 

 of their own, abounding in clicks, and resembling to 

 my mind more nearly the language of baboons than 

 of human beings. Even their over-lords the Bechu- 

 anas can scarcely comprehend them. It is, I think, 

 probable that these Masarwas were, like the smaller 

 Hottentot Bushmen and pure Hottentots of the old 

 Cape Colony, settled in South Africa long before 

 the Bantu races — the Kaffirs, Bechuanas, Basutos, 

 and Zulus — forced their way south. And it is a 

 very remarkable fact, that Pliny in his day speaks of 

 the then Ethiopian name for giraffe as nobis, or nahin, 

 almost identically the same word as that used by the 

 Masarwa Bushmen of the present time. 



Having said thus much concerning giraffes and 

 giraffe lore, I will turn to the best method of captur- 

 ing them. 



Now-a-days, from a variety of reasons, giraffes are 

 extremely hard to procure from North Africa, whence 

 by way of the Red Sea ports — Suakin and Massowah 

 — they were until of late mainly procured. From 

 much persecution by Arabs and Soudanese, and the 

 introduction of firearms and horses, they have been 

 pushed far to the south of the Soudan. The Soudan 

 war has practically closed the export trade in these 

 rare creatures by way of the Red Sea, and there 

 seems little present likelihood of matters being 

 mended in this respect. In certain parts of East 



