CH. XI] GIRAFFES AND TJOXS 809 



give the safari a good feed ; and one day I shot them 

 five zebra and an oryx bull, together with a couple of 

 gazelle for ourselves and our immediate attendants — 

 enough of the game being hal-lalled to provide for the 

 Mohammedans in the safari. I also shot an old bull 

 giraffe of the northern form, after an uneventful stalk 

 which culminated in a shot with the Winchester at a 

 hundred and seventy yards. In most places this parti- 

 cular stretch of country was not suitable for galloping, 

 the ground being rotten, filled with holes, and covered 

 with tall, coarse grass. One evening we saw two lions 

 half a mile away. I tried to ride them, but my horse 

 fell twice in the first hundred and fifty yards, and 1 

 could not even keep them in sight. Another day we 

 got a glimpse of two lions, a quarter of a mile off, gliding 

 away among the thorns. They went straight to the 

 river and swam across it. More surprising was the fact 

 that a monkey, which lost its head when we surprised 

 it in a tree by the river, actually sprang plump into the 

 stream, and swam, easily and strongly, across it. 



One day we had a most interesting experience with 

 a cow giraffe. We saw her a long way ofi' and stalked 

 to within a couple of hundred yards before we could 

 make out her sex. She was standing under some thorn- 

 trees, occasionally shifting her position for a few yards, 

 and then aoain standin^r motionless with her head thrust 

 in among the branches. She was indulging in a series 

 of noontide naps. At last, when she stood and went to 

 sleep again, I walked up to her, Cunhighame and our 

 two gun-bearers, Bakhari and Kongoni, following a 

 hundred yards behind. W^hen I was within forty yards, 

 in plain sight, away from cover, she opened her eyes 

 and looked drowsily at me ; but 1 stood motionless and 

 she dozed off again. This time I walked up to within 



