.'308 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



her sex. She was standing under some thorn-trees, occa- 

 sionally shifting her position for a few yards, and then 

 again standing motionless with her head thrust in among 

 the branches. She was indulging in a series of noon naps. 

 At last, when she stood and went to sleep again, I walked 

 up to her, Cuninghame and our two gun-bearers, Bakhari 

 and Kongoni, following a hundred yards behind. When 

 I was within forty yards, in plain sight, away from cover, 

 she opened her eyes and looked drowsily at me; but I stood 

 motionless and she dozed off again. This time I walked up 

 to within ten feet of her. Nearer I did not care to venture, 

 as giraffe strike and kick very hard with their hooves, 

 and, moreover, occasionally strike with the head, the blow 

 seemingly not being delivered with the knobby, skin- 

 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.* 



* 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, 



