en. IV] GIRAFFES 93 



possible lions. Half as far on the other side of the 

 rhino a party of naked savages had established their 

 camp, if camp it could be called, for really all they did 

 was to squat down round a couple of fires with a few 

 small bushes disposed round about. The rhino had 

 been opened, and they had already taken out of the 

 carcass what they regarded as titbits and wliat we 

 certainly did not grudge them. Between the two 

 camps lay the huge dead beast, his hide glistening in 

 the moonlight. In each camp the men squatted aroimd 

 the fires chatting and laughing as they roasted strips of 

 meat on long sticks, the fitful blaze playing over them, 

 now leaving them in darkness, now bringing them out 

 into a red relief. Our own tent was pitched under 

 anotlier tree a hundred yards off', and when I went to 

 sleep, I could still hear the drumming and chanting of 

 our feasting porters ; the savages were less at ease, and 

 their revel was quiet. 



Early next morning I went back to camp, and soon 

 after reaching there again started out for a hunt. In 

 the afternoon I came on giraffes and got up near enough 

 to shoot at them. But they are such enormous beasts 

 that I thought them far nearer than they were. My 

 bullet fell short, and they disappeared among the 

 mimosas, at their strange leisurely-looking gallop. Of 

 all the beasts in an African landscape none is more 

 : striking than the giraffe. Usually it is found in small 

 parties or in herds of fifteen or twenty or more 

 individuals. Although it will drink regularly if occa- 

 sion offers, it is able to get along without water for 

 ; months at a time, and frequents by choice the dry plains 

 I or else the stretches of open forest where the trees are 

 ( scattered and ordinarily somewhat stunted. Like the 

 rhinoceros — the ordinary or prehensile-lipped rhinoceros 



