146 FROM THE NIGEE TO THE NILE 



getting the skin ofi, racing a tornado that passed threaten- 

 ingly near. Camp was pitched upon the spot, and the Sarua 

 hunters were busy far into the night drying over fires the 

 strips of meat that strewed the whole place round. This 

 work was continued most of the next day, and the camp 

 was enveloped in an atmosphere of meat and smoke. 



Goshng does not speak very enthusiastically about the 

 edible qualities of giraffe meat ; he describes the kidneys at 

 breakfast as a failure, and stewed tail, steak, or tongue as 

 no food for the white man. Soup made of the tail was 

 the only thing possible and that had to be disguised. There 

 was a superstition among the natives that the slayer of a 

 giraffe would be inflicted with madness, and peculiar forms 

 of ju-ju had to be observed to avert this fate. Gosling was 

 made to take a certain kind of snuff, and the natives rubbed 

 it on the tops of their heads. The tuft on the head of the 

 giraffe and its whiskers had then to be singed, and GosHng 

 was only just in time to rescue the tail from being cut 

 off. 



The roan antelope is the only other ju-ju animal among 

 these people ; it is held in even greater awe than the giraffe, 

 and the old hunter said that they rarely dared to kill it. 

 He also said that both black and white giraffe had been 

 got in the country. 



On the way back to Sarua, two more giraffe were seen, 

 a mother and her young one, which made off suddenly as 

 the wind was blowing strongly in their direction. Gosling's 

 giraffe is the first that has been obtained in Northern Nigeria, 

 and the head is now to be seen at the Natural History Museum, 

 South Kensington. Some of its measurements were 11 ft. 



