200 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



with a favourite high-caste chestnut Arabian 

 horse called ' Bashom ' (i.e. the fox) ; and, 

 lastly, two footmen carrying waterskins. We 

 had gone an hour from camp without finding 

 any fresh traces of elephant, so we took up the 

 tracks of three giraffe that crossed the line 

 at right angles. The forest consisted mainly 

 of gum-bearing acacias, each about thirty feet 

 high, and at every mile or two we would pass 

 a watercourse, its lower level marked by the 

 luxuriant verdure of large tamarind, ebony and 

 adansonia trees ; and the first rains, early in 

 June, had carpeted the undulating slopes of 

 hard loam with springy turf and wild flowers. 

 " After an hour's tracking at quickened pace, 

 during which we passed fresh tracks of other 

 feeding giraffe, Ahmet gave the signal by 

 springing into the saddle, and ' Bashom ' 

 pricked up his ears as three frightened giraffes, 

 which, though fully five hundred yards away, 

 had, as usual, seen the hunters before them- 

 selves being sighted, began striding towards 

 each other and then broke away to the left 

 at a swinging canter. The riders, however, 

 had a good start, and the horses were soon 

 skimming over the yielding ground as if they 

 were on a racecourse. One cow led away left- 

 handed and was unsuccessfully ridden by the 

 sheikh. The two larger animals, a light tawny 

 cow and an unusually big bull with conspicu- 

 ously black tessellated markings, bore straight 

 on abreast. The ground now became harder 

 and was covered with long dead grass, as well 

 as with occasional low thorns that explained 



