298 THE GUASO NYERO [ch. xi 



be a good hunting horse. On the right were two 

 giraffe, which eventually turned out to be a big cow, 

 followed by a nearly full-grown young one ; but 

 Cuninghame, scanning them through his glasses, and 

 misled by the dark coloration, pronounced them a bull 

 and cow, and after the big one I went. By good luck 

 we were on one of the rare pieces of the country which 

 was fitted for galloping. 1 rode at an angle to the 

 giraffe's line of flight, thus gaining considerably ; and 

 when it finally turned and went straight away T followed 

 it at a fast run, and before it was fully awake to the 

 danger I was but a hundred yards behind. We were 

 now getting into bad country, and, jumping off, 1 

 opened fire and crippled the great beast. Mounting, I 

 overtook it again in a quarter of a mile and killed it. 



In half an hour the skinners and porters came up. 

 One of the troubles of hunting as a naturalist is that it 

 necessitates the presence of a long tail of men to take 

 off and carry in the big skins, in order that they may 

 ultimately appear in museums. In an hour and a half 

 the giraffe's skin, with the head and the leg bones, was 

 slung on two poles ; eight porters bore it, while the 

 others took for their own use all the meat they could 

 carry. They were in high good-humour, for an abundant 

 supply of fresh meat always means a season of rejoicing, 

 and they started campwards singing loudly under their 

 heavy burdens. While the girafte was being skinned 

 we had seen a rhinoceros feeding near our line of march 

 campwards, and had watched it until the light grew 

 dim. By the time the skin was ready night had fallen, 

 and we started under the brilliant moon. It lit up the 

 entire landscape ; but moonlight is not sunlight, and 

 there was the chance of our stumbling on the rhino 

 imawares, and of its charging, so I rode at the head of 



