THE GUASO NYERO 315 



covered horns, but with the front teeth of the lower 

 jaw. She waked, looked at me, and then, rearing slightly, 

 struck at me with her left foreleg, the blow falling short. I 

 laughed and leaped back, and the other men ran up shout- 

 ing. But the giraffe would not run away. She stood within 

 twenty feet of us, looking at us peevishly, and occasionally 

 pouting her lips at us, as if she were making a face. We 

 kept close to the tree, so as to dodge round it, under the 

 branches, if she came at us; for we would have been most 

 reluctant to shoot her. I threw a stick at her, hitting her 

 in the side, but she paid no attention; and when Bakhari 

 came behind her with a stick she turned sharply on him 

 and he made a prompt retreat. We were laughing and 

 talking all the time. Then we pelted her with sticks 

 and clods of earth, and, after having thus stood within 

 twenty feet of us for three or four minutes, she cantered 

 slowly off for fifty yards, and then walked away with lei- 

 surely unconcern. She was apparently in the best of health 

 and in perfect condition. She did not get our wind; but 

 her utter indifference to the close presence of four men is 

 inexplicable.* 



On each of the two days we hunted this little district we 

 left camp at sunrise, and did not return until eight or nine 

 in the evening, fairly well tired, and not a little torn by the 

 thorns into which we blundered during the final two hours' 

 walk in the darkness. It was hot, and we neither had nor 

 wished for food, and the tepid water in the canteens lasted 



* After writing the above account I read it over to Mr. Cuninghame so as to be sure 

 that it was accurate in all its details. All the game was tame in this locality, even 

 the giraffe, but no other giraffe allowed us to get within two hundred yards, and 

 most of them ran long before that distance was reached, even when we were stalking 

 carefully. 



