THE GIRAFFE 
friend Mr A. Blaney-Percival has, however, put it on record that he has 
heard a Somali giraffe make a noise sounding something like “Baa-a.” 
Although the giraffe is one of the most inoffensive creatures in the world, 
nevertheless, a breakneck gallop after a herd of these animals is an ex- 
perience that will live long in one’s memory. With their long, bushy black 
tails screwed up over their backs, they can run when pressed at a tremen- 
dous pace, crashing through thorn jungles and threading their way 
amongst thickly -growing trees in the most marvellous manner. They will 
judge the space between a horizontal branch and the ground to an inch, 
and if there is just room for their shoulders to pass beneath it, they will 
not swerve to avoid it or check their pace in the least, but will just duck 
their heads and necks at exactly the right moment and pass beneath the 
obstacle. Going at its best pace, a giraffe can only be passed by a fast 
horse, and then only when the ground is open and in every respect favour- 
able to the latter. Through thorn bush and thickish forest, only a very 
good horse, with an experienced rider on its back, can live with a giraffe, 
and when the splendid quarry has at last been laid low, the successful 
hunter and his mount will often be a good deal the worse for wear. Of 
course, when giraffes are encountered in open ground, there is very little 
difficulty in riding up to and shooting one or more of them; but I have 
been more hurt in hunting giraffes through bad country than in the pursuit 
of any other animals. I have had some terrific falls, on one occasion 
knocking out three of my teeth, and on another splitting the bone of my 
right leg ; and I have often returned to camp with my shirt — I never wore a 
coat — literally torn off me, and my arms and body seamed with cuts from 
the wait-a-bit thorns. But in those days one hunted not for sport or to 
secure a trophy, but to live. There were no game laws or regulations. 
One had to get meat for a large number of native followers, and as, where 
giraffes were to be found, other game was often very scarce, one had to 
do one’s best to secure at least one of these animals, no matter how 
unfavourable the ground and the bush, where they were met with. 
One of the usual and most interesting accompaniments of giraffe-hunting 
in South-Western Africa was the employment of Bushmen trackers. To 
watch these savages puzzling out fresh tracks amongst many others only 
a little older was always absorbingly interesting; and though they were 
without any power of scent, and relied upon their eyes alone, they seemed 
little inferior to dogs in the certainty with which they worked up to the 
game they were following. Often in the thick thorn bush or forest through 
43 
