loit 



OIRAKKA. 



GIUAFFA. 



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colon in the Giraffe are spiral, as they are in the deer and in the 

 antelope* ; and that like them it has a simple caecum, which it 2 feet 

 2 inches in length. The first giraffe (female) disnected by Professor 

 Owen had a double gall-bladder, each bladder of the usual size : this 

 i* pi Marred in spirit in the museum of the College. The other two 

 giraffe* (males) wen without a trace of gall-bladder. He believes 

 therefore that absence of the gall-bladder, as in the deer (the antelopes 

 hare it), U the ruV-. 



Head of Giraffe (Nubian) with the tongue elongated. 



Head of Giraffe (profile), showing the frontal protuberance and the mane. 

 (Nubian.) 



The kidneys in the giraffes examined by Professor Owen were 

 not lobulated as in the oz, but simple, as in the deer and antelopes. 



Professor Owen found the male organs to agree with the horned 

 ruminant type ; that is, the prostate is divided, not single as iu tin- 

 camel There is a peculiarity in the termination of the urethra ; for 

 it is continued as a membranous canal one inch and a half beyond 

 the extremity of the glans, adhering to the prepuce. The female 

 organs differ also from those of the camels, and agree with those of 

 the true ruminants, exhibiting processes for the cotyledons in the 

 interior of the cornua, 



These are the principal observations made by Professor Owen in 



lis interesting paper, but he also notices one beautiful provision in 

 the structure of the animal which we must not omit The nostrils 

 of the Giraffe are provided with cutaneous sphincter muscles, and 

 can be shut at will like the eyes. Professor Owen supposes that the 

 object of this mechanism is to keep out the sand when the storms of 

 the desert arise. 



Every one must be struck with the beautiful large eye of the 

 Giraffe; and it will be found upon further examination that it is 

 so placed that the animal can see much of what is pasting on 

 all sides, even behind it, without turning the head. Thus it U 

 approached with the greatest difficulty ; and if surprised, or run 

 down, it can direct the rapid storm of kicks by which it defends 

 itaelf in the most accurate manner. We need hardly add that the 

 horny hoofs are divided, and that the two small lateral toes generally 

 seen in the true ruminants are wanting. 



We now proceed to speak of the history and arrangement of the 

 Giraffe : In Deut, xiv., where there is an enumeration of meats, 

 clean and unclean, we find (verse 5), among the beasts which the 

 Israelites are permitted to eat, " the hart, and the roebuck, and the 

 fallow deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and 

 the chamois." So it stands, or with very slight variation, in the more 

 modern English translations. In the black-letter Bible "imprinted 

 at London by Robert Barker, printer to the king's most excellent 

 majestie (1615)," we find the same verse thus written: "The hart, 

 and the roebucke, and the bugle, and the wilde goate, and the 

 unicorne, and the wild oxe, and the chamois." In the ' Physic* 

 Sacra,' the verse is thus given in Latin : "Cervum, Capream, Ibicem, 

 (o) Hircocervum, ' (6) Unicornem, Urum et Tarantlum ; ' " and a note 

 adds, " (a) Alii legunt Bubalum aut Bovem Sylvestrem, (6) Tragehv 

 phum." Opposite to this stands the following version of the same : 

 " Cervum et Capream, Bubalum, Tragelaphum, Pygargum, Otygem, 

 Camclopardalum." These are the Tigurine and Vulgate versions. 

 The original word, it appears, is 101, Zemer, and Scheuchzer observes 



that Hieronymus, many interpreters, and many versions render the 

 word by Camelojiardalu, which is the Zurapha, Zerafet, and Ziirafet 

 (plur. Zcrafi and Zeraif), of the Arabians; Sumapa, Ziiruapo, Zurnepa, 

 of the Turks ; an interpretation which renders the Arabians and 

 Jews doubtful whether the flesh, which is said to be hard and 

 difficult of digestion, be permitted by the law. Bochart rejects the 

 term Camtlopardalit, because that animal is not an inhabitant of 

 either Arabia or Palestine, but of Nubia and Ethiopia, and therefore 

 was long unknown to Europeans. Schcuchzer adds that Aristotle 

 says nothing about the Cainelopard or Cameleopard "de e.1 nil 

 prorsus habet Aristoteles" and that the first of the Greeks who 

 described it was Agatharchides, who lived in the time of the sixth 

 Ptolemy (Philometor). This animal, he continues, was not seen at 

 Rome before the time of Caesar : " Unde iuferre licet, non ignotam 

 fuisae duntaxat Mosis tempore, sed et Alexaudri, qui Mose posterior 

 est minis 1200." Wherefore the commentator has recourse to the 

 tVivine or Caprine genus, and selects the Rupicapra (Chamois), 

 observing that 'our two versions' read Tarantlum (the rein-deer, 

 which, he says, in Meuiuzk. Lex. has the cognomen of Siirnapa and 

 liiruffu). In Scheuchzer's plate (ccxxix.) of the clean and unclean 

 animals (Levit., xi 2), the Giraffe does not appear, but at pi. 

 cccxli. (Deut, xiv. 5), he figures a CameleopardtUii and Tarandta 

 ' Cameel-Pardel ' and ' Hennthier,' the former with sharp antelope- 

 like horns, and the latter with a spotted skin and somewhat extra- 

 ordinary antlers. With the exception of the head and horns, that 

 part of the Camelopard which appears the hind-quarters are hidden 

 by the other figure is not bad. Both figures appear to be copies 

 from Jonston, who seems to have copied one of his Camelopards 

 from Geaner. Schcuchzer introduces the body and head of a < 

 lopard with the same antelope-like boms, but rather more cun. i m 

 the background of pi. xxxii. (Gen. iii. 21). The commentator 

 in the ' Pictorial Bible,' where a good cut of the Giraffe is given, says, 

 with reference to the word 'chamois,' "The Arabic version uiulrr- 

 stood that the Giraffe was meant here, which is very likely to have 

 been the case ; for the Chamois is not met so far to the southward as 

 Egypt and Palestine. The Giraffe or Cameleopard (Camclopardalit 

 dhraffa) is a singular as well as beautiful creature found in the central 

 parti of Africa. The Jews had probably many opportunity 

 becoming acquainted with the animal while in Egypt, as had also the 

 Seventy, who resided there, and who indicate it in their translation 

 of the Hebrew name." 



Bclzoni notices the Camelopard on the walls of the sekos of the 

 Memnonium, and on the back of the temple of Ermenta. In Gau's 

 ' Nubien ' (pi. 16) is the representation of a rvlief, for the general 

 character of which we refer to the work itself, and to the interesting 

 account published in the ' Library of Entertaining Knowledge : 

 British Museum Egyptian Antiquities,' vol. i. In the procession 

 appears, among other animal*, a well-executed figure of a Giraffe led 

 by a man dressed in skins. The author of the useful and amusing 

 book hut quoted supposes the relief to represent the booty obtained 

 after a victory. 



KoHellini, in his great work on Egypt, gives the coloured engraving 

 of a Pompa, wherein a Giraffe (' M.C.,' No. xxii., fig. 2), the spots on 

 which arc very close, is depicted as led by two men, who hold cords 



