The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-08-06
aIRAFFEs IN EUROPE.
The Difficulty of Obtaining Them
For Exhibition.
From London specta tor.


The first giraffe seen in Europe since
the tertiary epoch was obtained from Alex
andria by Julius Caesar and exhibited at
the Circensian games to crowds who ex-
pected from its name, ''camelopard, to find
in it a combination the size of a camel and
the ferocity of panther. Pliny, who de-
scribed it, echoed the public disappOint-
ment. at was as quiet, he wrote, "as a
sheep"
The trade probably reached its maxi
mum after it became the fashion to exhibit
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 time, and the En-
peror Titus, at the dedication of his new
theater, caused the slaughter of 5000 wild
beasts. Either the number Of wild ami
mails in the provinces must have been be-
yond anything since known, or the Roman
governors must have used their despotie
powers freely to oblige their friends,
Despots are the best collectors, and from
the fall of the Roman empire till the arri-
val Of those placed in the geological gar
dens in 1886 the rare appearances 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 1914, and
the soldan of Egypt presented another to
Lorenzo the Magnificent, which became
the pet of Florence, and used to be allowed
10 walk in the streets and take 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 Constantinople, We
nice, England and France respectively,
The giraffe sent to England was in bad
health and soon died; but the Parisians
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 its use from Egypt |
The prefect of Marseilles had the arms Of |
France embroidered on its body cloth, and
it entered Paris escorted by a Darfour ne
gro, Hassan, an Arab; a Marseilles groom,
mulatto interpreter, the project 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 1886, NJ. Thibaut procured stock of
giraffes for the geological society 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 NJ Thibaut engaged
the services of the Arab sword hunters,
whose skill and courage were of such ser
vice to Sir Samuel Baker in his expedition
thirty years later to the sources of the
Nile tributaries, and in two days they
sighted the giraffes.
A female with fawn was FIRST pursued
by the Arabs, who killed the animal 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 cord, the end of which
was held by one of the Arabs; at the ead
of that time it was perfectly tame, and
trotted after the caravan with the female
eamels 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 NJ. Thibaut caught
died in the cold weather in the desert |
But he replaced three of these aud 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 difficult
ties. From Malta they were brought to
London and safely lodged in the Zoologi-
cal gardens in the summer of 1886. 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 hay and fresh grass from the tall racks
with which their stables were fitted.
Onions and sugar were their favorite
delicacies, and in search Of sugar they
would follow their keepers and slip their
long prehensile tongues into his hands or
pockets. But they always retained lik
ing for eating flowers, "reminiscences per-
haps of the days when their parents feasted
on mimosa blossoms in the desert; some |
time ago one was seen TO stretch its neck
over the ratings and to delicately nip off
an artificial rose in young lady's hat.
They We're most afectionate creatures, and
as NJ. Thibaut noticed when in charge of
them in upper Egypt, would shed tears if
they missed their companions or their usual
attendants.
But the development Of the laehrymal |