CHAPTER XI. 
THE GIRAFFE. 
Magnificent creature! to reach thee I atrain 
Through forest and glen, over mountain afd plain, 
Yet now thou art fallen, thy fate 1 deplore, 
And lament that the reign of thy greatness is o'er. 
Thing heart’s blood is streaming, thy vigour gone by, 
Thy fleet foot is paleied, and glazed is thine eye:— 
Now the last hard convulsion of death has come o'er thee 
Magnificent creature! who weuld not deplore thee? 
DurinG three centuries and a half, the aceounts given of this extraordinary animal were deemed entirely fabulous. Its 
apparent disproportions and colossal height had elassed it with the Unicorns, and Sphynxes, the Satyrs, and the Cynocephali, 
of the ancients; and had induced a belief that so singular a form belonged rather to the group of chimeras with which 
the regions of imagination are tenanted, than existed amongst the actual works of the creation. 
Loftiest of all the Maméiferes, and isolated among the ruminating creation, whether in family, in genus, or in species, 
the animal now before us is one so extraordinary in form, and so stupendous in stature, that even the stuffed spoils, the 
almost shapeless representative of the living creature, produce upon the eye of the beholder a mixed effect of astonishment 
and awe, Involuntarily is his imagination led back to the early epochs of the world, when colossal beings peopled the 
earth, and were the undisputed possessors of every region. He fancies himself at once im the presence of one of the sur- 
vivors of the great diluvian catastrophe, when the Mastodon, the Megatherium, and perhaps its own congeners, were swept 
away, leaving the Camelopardalis to attest, amongst a few others, what were the forms of a primitive animated nature! “ 
The first of this noble species ever seen in Europe is said by Pliny to have been exhibited at Rome, during the dicta- 
torship of Julius Cesar, Several of the emperors subsequently displayed others in the games of the circus, or in their triumphal 
processions: aud Gordian [I]. is said to have possessed no fewer than ten living examples at the same time. It was displayed 
by Anrelian amongst other remarkable animals, in his triumph over Queen Zenobia, on the conquest of Palmyra; and it is 
represented both in its grazing and browsing attitudes on the Proenestine mosaic pavement. In that part of the mosaic 
which desiroaten the cataracts of the Nile, a larger animal is likewise represented with shorter horns, Since the Southern 
regions of Africa were a terra incagnita to the Romans, these specimens must have been obtained vid Egypt, from the Northern, 
or North Eastern line of that vast continent. Nevertheless the animal was at no time a native of Egypt, and in the ancient 
sculptures is introduced only in subjects which relate to Ethiopia, whence it was brought with apes, rare woods, and other 
native productions, as part of the tribute annually paid to the Pharaohs. 
Amongst the earlier writers, Pliny, lian, and Strabo, have all noticed the Camelopardalis, but the first satisfactory de- 
scription is to be found in the -Ethiopica of Heliodorus, Bishop of Tricea. “The ambassadors,” he says, “of the Axeomite 
(Abyssinia,) brought presents to Hydaspes, and among other things there was an animal of a strange and wonderful species, 
about the size of a camel, which had its skin marked with florid spots; the hinder parts from the loins being low, like those 
of a lion, but the shoulders, fore-feet, and breast, elevated above proportion to the other parts; the neck was small and length- 
ened out from its large body, like that of a swan; the head in form resembled a camel's, but was in size about twice that of 
a Libyan Ostrich, and it rolled its eyes, which had a film oyer them, very frightfully. It differed in gait from every other 
land or water animal, and waddled in a remarkable fashion; each leg did not move alternately, but those on the right side 
moved together, independently of the other, and those on the left in the same manner, so that each side was alternately eley- 
ated. This animal was so tractable as to be led by a small string fastened to the head, and the keeper could conduct it whi- 
thersoever he pleased, as if with the strongest chain. When it appeared, it struck the whole multitude with terror, and it took 
its name from the principal parts of its body, being called by the people, extempore, Camelopardalis,” 
The terms of exaggeration in which the old travellers have mentioned the Camelopard, were naturally derived from the 
distorted reports of Africans. It was “a beast not often seene, yet very tame, and of @ strange composition, mixed of a libard 
(leopard), harte, buffe, and camel; and by reason of his long legges before, and shorter behind, not able to graze without dif- 
fivulty.”{ Again, he was “so huge, that a man on horseback may passe uprighte under him, feeding on leaves from the tops 
af trees, and formed like a camel.”§ In a very curious old Spanish book, however, which describes the second embassy from 
* Hamilton Smith p. 160. } Porchas, book vi. chap. 1. 
+ Wilkinson's Egypt. § Thid. book vii. chap, 6. 
