HISTORY OF THE CAMELEOPARD. 



37 



I 



mt a single young one at a birth, with which she goes 

 twelve months." 



Several have been carried to Europe. One was sent as 

 a present to the King of England by the Pacha of Egypt, 

 and arrived there in 1827. It died recently. 



" In one point all the observers of the European giraffe 

 agree that they never make any noise whatever. Further, 

 they appear to consider that the animal would be useless 

 to man in a state of domestication. M. Acerbi has an anec- 

 dote illustrative of this point : 



" 'When at Alexandria, I had one day ordered the two 

 giraffes (a male and female) taken at Darfur, to be led up 

 and down the square in front of my house ; among the 

 crowd collected on the occasion were some Bedouins of the 

 Desert. On inquiring of one of them whether he had ever 

 seen similar animals before he replied that he had not; 

 and I then asked him in Arabic, ' Taib di ? Do they please 

 you ?' To which he rejoined, ' Mustaib,' or, ' I do not like 

 them.' Having desired my interpreter to inquire the 

 grounds of his disapproval, he answered, 'that it did not 

 carry like a horse, it did not serve for field labors like an ox, 

 did not yeild hair like a camel, nor flesh and milk like a goat ; 

 and on this account it was not to his liking.'" 



This animal, though unknown to the Greeks, is described 

 by Pliny and Oppian, and Julius Caesar brought one to 

 Europe in the year of Rome 708, after which they were 

 frequently used in the circus or triumphal processions. Its 

 ancient denomination was zurapha, from which the modern 

 name of giraffe is derived. 



In a slate of nature they are timorous, and flee immedi- 

 ately from danger, but in a state of domestication lose a 

 great part of their timidity, become mild and docile, know 

 their keeper, and take from the hand what is offered to 

 them. 



