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It would not be difficult, I imagine, to point out the absurdity of this belief; and to prove that the Unicorn of the ancients was either the Gnu of South Africa, or an allied species supposed to exist at the present time in the inter-tropical region of the same continent. A third species of oryx, the Beisa, inhabits Abyssinia.
Such "rogues," as men call them, are not gentlemanly, as a rule. And, by the way, you know the gnu, of course, alias wildebeest? The head of a very shaggy buffalo, the horsy mane, the delicate, strong, sloping antelope body, the long, mustang-like tail, and the strange, twisted, unconventional character, half-fierce, half-inquisitive.
She does very right to ask, "Have we no social duties, I should like to know?" And when we have performed these social duties in Gnu's house, how mean it is, how "it looks," not to build a larger house for him and Mrs. Gnu to come and perform their social duties in. I give it up. There's no doubt of it. One day Polly said to me: "Mr. Potiphar, we're getting down town."
Gnu, at whom he had been constantly looking, and who was playing placidly with her bouquet, and said with an air of one paying a great compliment: "To offer you a bouquet, madame, would be to throw pearls before swine." We were all silent for a moment, and then the young men sprang up together, while we women laughed, half afraid. "Good heavens! Kurz Pacha, what do you mean?" cried Mrs. Potiphar.
Now and then a young gnu was seen to fall behind with its mother, or the bull would drop out of the ranks, and switching it severely with its long tail, compel it to keep up. The older quaggas also seemed to keep their youngsters in excellent order.
With every indication of abasement they approached and awaited the white man's orders. Von Gobendorff pointed to the still warm embers of the fire. "I am hungry," he said. "Get me something to eat and drink, and be sharp." While one of the Birwas cut strips of flesh from the gnu and spitted them on skewers, the other placed more wood on the fire and coaxed it into a blaze.
Moles, probably, and the inhabitants of the planet Jupiter, do not discern the difference; but I rather think we do. A ten-strike by Venus! well done, Mrs. Gnu," cried the Ambassador; "now, Mrs. Potiphar." The Pacha didn't play; but he asked Mr. Firkin what was a good average for a man, in the game. "Well, a spare every time," said he. "Mr. Firkin," asked Mrs.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door, and an exquisite bouquet was handed in for Kurz Pacha. "Why didn't you wait until to-morrow?" said he, sharply. The man stammered some excuse, and the ambassador took the flowers. Mrs. Gnu looked at them closely, and praised them very much, and quietly glanced at her own, which were really splendid.
I dared not take my eye off him, for I knew that my best prospect of escaping was to continue facing him boldly. I suspect that he had gone into the wood to indulge in a nap, after having taken a full meal off some unfortunate gnu or antelope. I was very thankful when I at length managed to get to the edge of the wood without stumbling.
The gnoos that had been seen were the common kind called by the Dutch colonists "wildebeests" or wild-oxen, and by the Hottentots "gnoo" or "gnu," from a hollow moaning sound to which these creatures sometimes give utterance, and which is represented by the word "gnoo-o-oo."
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