THE GIHAFFE. 115 



sponging it out, so to speak, little by little. We 

 managed to do this by the aid of a steel point, fur- 

 nished at the end with bristles from the kros of my 

 Hottentots ; and which, thus changed into a pencil, 

 was introduced into the bony cavity of the cranium. 

 I filled the empty cranium with hot cinders. As to 

 the anterior part of the head, from the nostrils to the 

 bony appendages, which in this animal form a kind 

 of horns, I had nothing to do, because, not being 

 fleshy, I had simply to dry it. 



" From time to time I renewed the cinders on the 

 skin ; I even kept up great fires for many days to- 

 gether, solely for the purpose of having these cinders. 

 They operated at once by the combined action of their 

 desiccative and alkaline property; and this method 

 succeeded admirably." 



This skin was brought to Europe ; and Le Vaillant 

 expressed his regret at not having an apartment suffi- 

 ciently high to exhibit the animal, and to offer to 

 amateurs a true model of what the animal is in nature. 



Let us transport ourselves now to the other extremity 

 of Africa Nubia. 



Five or six men, mounted on good horses, plunge 

 into the desert, accompanied by camels carrying water 

 and provisions. When they discover their prey they 

 separate, and, shouting aloud, they manoeuvre in such a 

 manner as to drive him towards a wood. The animal, 



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