CHAP, n.] HIS DEATH. 55 



and passed her. The giraffe obstinately made for her 

 point. I was forty yards in advance, and pulled up 

 full in her path. She came on : my horse was far too 

 blown to fidget, and was standing with his four legs 

 well out. I waited as long as I dare — too long, I 

 think, for her head was abnost above me when I fired, 

 and she really seemed coming at me with vice. I put 

 my bullet full in her face : she tossed her head back, 

 and the blood streamed from her nostril as she turned 

 and staggered, slowly retracing her path. I dare 

 not fire again, lest I should fail in killing her, and only 

 excite her to another run, which my horse was not fit 

 to engage in. I therefore rode slowly after the 

 wounded beast, and I drove her back to near where 

 she came from, and there she stopped under a high 

 tree. My horse was now frightened, and would not 

 let me take my aim for the finishing blow at the brain, 

 as it is but a small mark to shoot at ; so I got off, and 

 the unhappy creature looked down at me with her 

 large lustrous eyes, and I felt that I was committing a 

 kind of murder, but for all that, I was hungry, and she 

 must die ; so I waited till she turned her head, and 

 then dropped her with a shot. 



There was now a fine holiday feast for us. When 

 the party came up, we set to work flaying and cutting 

 large steaks from the meat, and securing the marrow- 

 bones, untn as much was heaped on the cart as the 

 mules could possibly struggle on with. Our Ghou 

 Damup guides ran on to Tsobis, where many of their 

 people lay, and who brought us six ostrich eggs and 

 sweet gum, in return for the meat we had left behind. 



