40 
THE GIRAFFE'S OBITUARY 
No doubt they did this. Caelius, Cicero’s gossiping 
correspondent, says, when writing to him in Cilicia — 
“ In nearly every letter I have written to you about 
panthers. It is a great shame. Pray send to Pam- 
phylia, where most are said to be taken. You have 
only to give an order, and the thing is done. You 
know I hate trouble, while you like it, and yet you 
will not do this, which is no trouble. I have sent 
men to look after them and bring them here.” 
Despots are the best collectors; and from the fall 
of the Roman Empire till the arrival of those placed 
in the Zoological Gardens in 1836, the rare appear- 
ances of the giraffe in Europe were in each case due 
to the munificence of Eastern Sultans and Pashas. 
The Prince of Damascus gave one to the Emperor 
Frederick II. in 1215; and the Soldan of Egypt 
presented another to Lorenzo the Magnificent, which 
became the pet of Florence, and used to be allowed to 
walk in the streets, and take the presents of fruit and 
cakes extended to it from the balconies. From this 
time the giraffe was not seen in Europe until, in 1827, 
the Pasha of Egypt sent four to Constantinople, 
Venice, England, and France respectively. The 
giraffe sent to England was in bad health, and soon 
died ; but the Parisians went wild with excitement 
over the Pasha’s present. It had spent the winter at 
Marseilles, and throve there on the milk of the cows 
which the Pasha had sent over for its use from Egypt. 
The Prefect of Marseilles had the arms of France 
embroidered on its body-cloth, and it entered Paris 
