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is still one of extreme awkwardness, and from the browsing habits of the animal can be rarely necessary—the leaves, tender 
shoots, and blossoms of that singular species of mimosa, yelept by the Colonists kameel doorn (Giraffe thorn), and found chiefly 
on dry plains or sandy deserts, forming its ordinary food, The size of this tree, together with its thick and spreading top, 
shaped like an umbrella, distinguish it at once from all others of the country —the Namaquas terming it the “kanaap, whilst 
hy all the Bechuana nations it is recognized as the mokaala. Both in flower and foliage it elosely resembles the common 
Cape acacia, but the pod is an oval husk, filled with a solid mealy substance, and the stem is covered with stout thorns, The 
wood, excessively hard and heavy, and of a dark red colour, with a black heart, is much used by the Africans in the manu- 
facture of spoons and other domestic utensils, many of which are ingeniously fashioned after the model of the Giraffe. 
So far as came under my observation, both sexes are mute, and utter no cry whateyer. The male, whose maximum 
stature appears to be about eighteen feet, increases in depth of colour with his years—the patriarchs becoming well nigh black; 
but the cows, whilst they seldom attain the height of seventeen feet, are uniformly of a fainter hue, bordering upon straw 
colour. Both sexes have crisp flaky coats, similarly marked with a rhomboidal or pentagonal carpet pattern, somewhat symme- 
trically disposed —and they possess in common, obtuse horns, or rather peduncles, about six or eight inches in length, covered 
with hair like the footstalk of a stag’s antlers, but terminating in a black pencilled tuft. On the chaffron also is a remarkable 
prominence, which increases with age, and in the young females is scarcely perceptible. The senses of sight, hearing, and 
smell, are acute and delicate; the fall humid eyes, fringed with dark silken lashes, eclipsing those of the oft-sung Gazelle of 
the East. Beaming with the mildest and most intelligent expression, they are so arranged that the animal can see both before 
and behind without turning its graceful head. Nor is the construction of the tongue less remarkable—its mobility being such 
as to enable it to perform in miniature the office of the elephant’s proboscis, by coiling round the twigs of lofty trees, and 
assisting, like the nose of the Tapir, in drawing the tender sprouts betwixt the flexible lips. 
Amongst the Griquas, or Bastaards, as the Mulatte Hottentots residing beyond the border are termed by the Colonists, 
large parties are annually formed for the purpose of hunting the Eland and Kameel, the flesh of both being held in equal 
estimation, and the thick robe of the latter considered the ne plus ultra for sandal soles. Many of the wretched wigwams of 
these people are thatched with an entire hide. During our sojourn at Chooi, we had an interview with a party returning from 
the Molopo, freighted with the spoils of not fewer than thirty-three, in obtaining which they had expended the whole of their 
ammunition, and worn their wretched horses to skin and bone. A trader whom I met in the Cape Colony, assured me before I 
visited the interior, that he had himself counted so many as eight hundred Kameels in a single day, and during his extensive 
travels had ridden down hundreds. But on our return, after a little cross-examination, the number destroyed gradually dwindled 
down to one; which solitary individual appeared upon further investigation to have been entrapped in a pitfall! They are some- 
times taken in this manner by the savages, who can never speak of the lofty Intootla without rising on tip-toe, and stretching 
their black necks to the utmost, A full-grown female, heavy in foal, was one night slaughtered by a lion whilst in the act 
of drinking at no great distance from our waggons; and in the morning, an imspection of the scene of the noisy conflict, 
proved that the giant strength of the victim had been paralyzed in a moment by the gripe of its tawny foe. Indeed, not- 
withstanding the amazing power of the animal, I should be disposed to doubt its ability to maintain-a race under the merciless 
jockeyship of the “great destroyer,” who, clinging with teeth and talons, is said, or rather fabled, to be carried fifteen or 
twenty miles before the quarry sinks under him, and not unusually to be hurled off at last without effecting his purpose. 
Heedless at the ambushed brink 
The tall Givaffe stoops down to drink: 
Upon him straight the savage springs 
With cruel joy!—The desert rings 
With clanging sound of desperate strife— 
For the prey is strong and strives for life; 
Now plunging tries with frantic bound 
To shake the tyrant to the ground; 
Then bursts like whirlwind through the waste, 
In hope to "scape by headlong haste: 
While the destroyer on his prize 
Rides proudly, tearing as he fies, 
For life the victim’s utmost speed 
Is roustered in this hour of need ; 
For life, for life, his giant might 
He etrains, and pours his soul in flight, 
And, mad with terror, thirst, and pain, 
Spurns with wild hoof the thundering plain. 
An inhabitant of Nubia and Abyssinia, as well as of the adjacent regions east of the Great Desert, the princely Zerapha* 
ocenrs southward over central Africa, toward the settlement at the Cape, but is now to be found lower than the 24th parallel 
of latitude. Of sequestered habits, it seeks the most secluded deserts, and even at its head quarters is by no means a common 
animal. Whilst we seldom saw one without having followed the trail, we never found more than five and thirty in the same 
day; and the range of its habitat, although so extensive, is exclusively confined to solitary regions, in which the hameel doorn 
is abundant. It was delightful to witness the courage evinced by our horses, in the pursuit of game, and even when brought 
into actual contact with this almost unearthly quadruped, they evinced no symptom of fear—a circumstance which, I confess, 
* The Giraffe is conjectured to be the Zamor of Moses. The modern nomenclature is a corruption of the Arabic Zuruphata, implying elegance or beauty. 
