He Was Immediately Skinned, And The Hide
Was Cut Into Long Strips About Three Inches Broad:
The portion of mane
adhering had the appearance of a fringe; each strip was worn as a scarf;
thus one skin will produce about eight or ten ornaments.
I sent my men to camp, and, accompanied by Richarn, mounted on my horse
"Mouse," I rode through the park-like ground in quest of game. I saw
varieties of antelopes, including the rare and beautiful maharif; but
all were so wild, and the ground so open, that I could not get a shot.
This was the more annoying, as the maharif was an antelope that I
believed to be a new species. It had often disappointed me; for although
I had frequently seen them on the south-west frontier of Abyssinia, I
had never been able to procure one, owing to their extreme shyness, and
to the fact of their inhabiting open plains, where stalking was
impossible. I had frequently examined them with a telescope, and had
thus formed an intimate acquaintance with their peculiarities. The
maharif is very similar to the roan antelope of South Africa, but is
mouse colour, with black and white stripes upon the face. The horns are
exactly those of the roan antelope, very massive and corrugated, bending
backwards to the shoulders. The withers are extremely high, which give a
peculiarly heavy appearance to the shoulders, much heightened by a large
and stiff black mane like that of a hog-maned horse. I have a pair of
horns in my possession that I obtained through the assistance of a lion,
who killed the maharif while drinking near my tent; unfortunately, the
skin was torn to pieces, and the horns and skull were all that remained.
Failing, as usual, in my endeavours to obtain a shot, I made a
considerable circuit, and shortly observed the tall heads of giraffes
towering over the low mimosas. There is no animal in nature so
picturesque in his native haunts as the giraffe. His food consists of
the leaves of trees, some qualities forming special attractions,
especially the varieties of the mimosa, which, being low, permit an
extensive view to his telescopic eyes. He has a great objection to high
forests. The immense height of the giraffe gives him a peculiar
advantage, as he can command an extraordinary range of vision, and
thereby be warned against the approach of his two great enemies, man and
the lion. No animal is more difficult to stalk than the giraffe, and the
most certain method of hunting is that pursued by the Hamran Arabs, on
the frontiers of Abyssinia, who ride him down and hamstring him with the
broadsword at full gallop. A good horse is required, as, although the
gait of a giraffe appears excessively awkward from the fact of his
moving the fore and hind legs of one side simultaneously, he attains a
great pace, owing to the length of his stride, and his bounding trot is
more than a match for any but a superior horse.
The hoof is as beautifully proportioned as that of the smallest gazelle,
and his lengthy legs and short back give him every advantage for speed
and endurance. There is a rule to be observed in hunting the giraffe on
horseback: the instant he starts, he must be pressed - it is the speed
that tells upon him, and the spurs must be at work at the very
commencement of the hunt, and the horse pressed along at his best pace;
it must be a race at top speed from the start, but, should the giraffe
be allowed the slightest advantage for the first five minutes, the race
will be against the horse.
I was riding "Filfil," my best horse for speed, but utterly useless for
the gun. I had a common regulation-sword hanging on my saddle in lieu of
the long Arab broadsword that I had lost at Obbo, and starting at full
gallop at the same instant as the giraffes, away we went over the
beautiful park. Unfortunately Richarn was a bad rider, and I, being
encumbered with a rifle, had no power to use the sword. I accordingly
trusted to ride them down and to get a shot, but I felt that the
unsteadiness of my horse would render it very uncertain. The wind
whistled in my ears as we flew along over the open plain. The grass was
not more than a foot high, and the ground hard; the giraffes about four
hundred yards distant steaming along, and raising a cloud of dust from
the dry earth, as on this side of the mountains there had been no rain.
Filfil was a contradiction; he loved a hunt and had no fear of wild
animals, but he went mad at the sound of a gun. Seeing the magnificent
herd of about fifteen giraffes before him, the horse entered into the
excitement and needed no spur - down a slight hollow, flying over the dry
buffalo holes, now over a dry watercourse and up the incline on the
other side - then again on the level, and the dust in my eyes from the
cloud raised by the giraffes showed that we were gaining in the race;
misericordia! - low jungle lay before us - the giraffes gained it, and
spurring forward through a perfect cloud of dust now within a hundred
yards of the game we shot through the thorny bushes. In another minute
or two I was close up, and a splendid bull giraffe was crashing before
me like a locomotive obelisk through the mimosas, bending the elastic
boughs before him in his irresistible rush, which sprang back with a
force that would have upset both horse and rider had I not carefully
kept my distance. The jungle seemed alive with the crowd of orange red,
the herd was now on every side, as I pressed the great bull before me.
Oh for an open plain! I was helpless to attack, and it required the
greatest attention to keep up the pace through the thick mimosas without
dashing against their stems and branches.
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