220 WILD ANIMALS. 



bring two green monkeys, a log of ebony, and some panther 

 skins, suspended from a pole carried on the shoulders ; the second 

 has a cheetah, held by a leash, and a gazelle ; the third a giraffe, 

 which is being driven with a cord round- his neck. The drawing 

 of the stately animal is excellently done, and conveys an exact 

 idea of its figure and appearance ; the only fault being that the 

 man is out of proportion, being represented as of the same height 

 as the giraffe, this being due, no doubt, to the limited space 

 at the artist's disposal not allowing him to delineate the true 

 proportions of the animal. Other men and animals follow, and 

 the last are two negroes with a gazelle, logs of ebony, and another 

 cheetah or panther, also an ostrich ; this being the only repre- 

 sentation yet discovered of this bird on an Egyptian monument. 



Ippolito Rosellini in his exhaustive work * also gives a coloured 

 reproduction of a giraffe as figured in that wonderful tomb of 

 Beni Hassan, which is the oldest drawing of the animal that has yet 

 been discovered. The giraffe is portrayed, being led by men who 

 are holding cords attached to the animal's legs below the knees. 

 Climbing up the giraffe's neck is a green monkey with a long 

 tail and a red face. The outline is very accurate, but the spots 

 are too numerous and close together. A facsimile of this drawing 

 is given herewith. It is the exact reproduction in every way of 

 the figure as found within the tomb, but is drawn on scale to a 

 quarter the size. 



The giraffe must have been known to the Greeks, for although 

 Aristotle does not speak of it — unless the Hippardion can be 

 accurately identified to mean it — it was described by Agathar- 

 chides, the Grecian geographer and historian (e.g. 130), A 

 camelopard is also enumerated among the rare animals seen in 

 the procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria by one of 

 the Deipnosophists.^ 



In the ruins of the temple dedicated to Fortune in Prjeneste, 

 now Palestrina, a town in Campagna di Roma, about twenty-three 

 miles south-east of Eome, was found the celebrated mosaic which 

 was transferred in 1640 by the Cardinal Francis Barberini to a 

 hall of his palace. This wonderful pavement, which is the finest 



* " I Monumenti dell' Egitto e della Nubia." = " Athenaus," lib. v. 



