i 9 8 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



and, without firearms of any sort, slew the lion, 

 elephant, and every kind of dangerous game 

 in his country. This is sport indeed, and 

 beside it our civilised pastime of shooting wild 

 beasts with long-range rifles makes tame read- 

 ing. At the same time, it must be borne in 

 mind that these wild Arabs are brought up 

 to such work, that their faith makes them 

 more indifferent to death and pain than the 

 men of other creeds, and that, even among 

 them, only a few picked men are equal to 

 these feats. 



Comparatively few Englishmen have taken 

 part in these tribal hunting expeditions, but 

 I am indebted to one of the few, a cavalry 

 officer, for a most interesting account of a 

 giraffe hunt, which is, however, related in 

 these pages for the sake of a remarkable epi- 

 sode of peculiar interest to those who love 

 horses. It proves beyond doubt that the 

 animal, a high-caste Arabian and the property 

 of the sportsman who sent me the story, first 

 knew that it had incurred blame and then 

 sought to redeem its character for courage, 

 which it eventually did. 



This is the story in his own words : 



" It was in the year 1900 that a small party 

 set out from Fakki Mohammed Osman, on 

 the River Binder, the principal affluent of the 

 Blue Nile, to hunt big game with spear and 



