THE GUASO NYERO 
303 
was fully awake to the danger I was but a hundred yards 
behind. We were now getting into bad country, and jump¬ 
ing off I opened fire and crippled the great beast. Mount¬ 
ing, I overtook it again in a quarter of a mile and killed it. 
In half an hour the skinners and porters came up—one 
of the troubles of hunting as a naturalist is that it necessi¬ 
tates the presence of a long tail of men to take off and carry 
in the big skins, in order that they may ultimately appear 
in museums. In an hour and a half the giraffe’s skin, with 
the head and the leg bones, was slung on two poles; eight 
porters bore it, while the others took for their own use all 
the meat they could carry. They were in high good-humor, 
for an abundant supply of fresh meat always means a sea¬ 
son of rejoicing, and they started campwards singing loudly 
under their heavy burdens. While the giraffe was being 
skinned we had seen a rhinoceros feeding near our line of 
march campwards, and had watched it until the light grew 
dim. By the time the skin was ready night had fallen, and 
we started under the brilliant moon. It lit up the entire 
landscape; but moonlight is not sunlight, and there was the 
chance of our stumbling on the rhino unawares, and of its 
charging; so I rode at the head of the column with full- 
jacketed bullets in my rifle. However, we never saw the 
rhino, nor had we any other adventure; and the ride 
through the moonlight, which softened all the harshness, and 
gave a touch of magic and mystery, to the landscape, was 
so pleasant that I was sorry when we caught the gleam of 
the camp-fires. 
Next day we sent our porters to bring in the rest of the 
giraffe meat and the ostrich eggs. The giraffe’s heart was 
good eating. There were many ticks on the giraffe, as on 
