The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1892-08-06
GIRAFFES IN EUROPE.
THE DIFFICULTY OF OBTAINING
THEM FOR EXHIBITION.

Julius Cesar Was the First to Import
Them for the Amusement and Enter
tainment OF the Roman Populace.
England Saw Several in 1885.
The first giraffe seen in Europe since
the tertiary epoch was obtained from
Alexandria by Julius Caesar and ex-
hibited at the Circensiangames to crowds
who expected from its name, "camelo-
pard," to find in it combination the
size Of q camel and the ferocity of a
panther. Pliny, who described it, echoed
the public disappointment. "It was as
quiet, he wrote, ''as sheep"
The trade probably reached its maxi
mum after it became the fashion to ex-
hibit combats of wild beasts at Rome;
yet even then giraffes seem to have been
scarce in the popular shows, though
Pompey could exhibit 500 lions at a
time, and the Emperor Titus, at the ded-
ication Of his new theater, caused the
slaughter of 5000 wild beasts. Either
the number of wild animals in the prov
inces must have been beyond anything
since known, or the Roman governors
must have used their despotic powers
freely to oblige their friends.
Despots. are the best collectors, and
from the fall of the Roman empire till
the arrival of those placed in the zoolog-
ical gardens in 1885 the rare appear
ances Of the giraffe in Europe were in
each case due to the munifcence of
eastern sultans and pashas. The prince
Of Damascus gave one to the Emperor
Frederick II in 1915, 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 1927 the
pasha of Egypt sent four to Constanti-
nople, Venice, England and France re-
spectively.
The giraffe sent to England was in
bad health and soon died; but the Pari-
SLAMS went wild over the pasha's present.
1t had spent the winter at Marseilles,
and throve there on the milk Of the cows
which the pasha had sent over for it's
use from Egypt. The prefect Of Mar.
seilleEhhd the arms or France enbruid-
cred on its body cloth, and it entered
Paris escorted by Darfour negro, Has
san, an Arab; Marseilles groom, a
mulatto interpreter, the prefect of Mar
seilles himself and professor from the
"Jardin des Plantes," while troops kept
back the crowd. Thousands came every
day to see it, and men and women wore
gloves, gowns and waistcoats Of the
color Of its spots.
But the successful expenditure by
which, in 1885, M. Thibaut procured a
stock Of giraffes for the Geological So
ciety owed nothing to the patronage Of
the pasha Of Egypt beyond permission
to enter the Soudan. The caravan left
the Nile near Dongola, and thence
passed on to the desert of Kordofan
There M. Thibaut engaged the services
of the Arab sword hunters, whose skill
and courage were Of such service to Sir
Samuel Baker in his expedition thirty
years later to the sources of the Nile
tributaries. and in two days they sighted
the girafes.
A female with fawn was first pur-
sued by the Arabs, who killed the ami
NAL with their swords, and next day
tracked and caught the fawn in the
thorny mimosa scrub. For four DAYS
the young giraffe was secured by a cord,
the end of which was held by one of the
Arabs; at the end of that time it was
perfectly tame, and trotted after the
caravan with the female camels which
had been brought to supply it with milk.
The Arabs were excellent nurses. and
taught the young creature to drink milk
by putting their fingers into its mouth
and so inducing it to suck.
-Four others which M. Thibaut caught
died in the cold weather in the desert.
But he replaced three of these and
brought -four, including the first taken,
down the Nile to Alexandria, and then
by ship to Malta. Providence alone.
he wrote, enabled me to surmount these
difficulties" From Malta they were
brought to London and safely lodged in
the Geological gardens in the summer
Of 1885. The largest was then about
eleven feet high, the height Of an adult
male being twelve feet at the shoulders
and eighteen feet at the head. For
many years. as we have said, the giraffes
throve and multiplied. They readily
took TO European food, and ate hav and
fresh grass from the tall racks with
which their stables were fitted.
Onions and<sugar were their fayorite
delicacies. and IN search ~ ar,-... 49,.