Giraffes from this manuscript
Jehan de Mandeville:
Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1357)
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Taken from: The voiage and travayle of Sir John Maundeville knight: which ...
In this land & many other
places of India, are many crocodiles, that is a maner of a long serpent, and on nights they dwell
on water, and on days they
dwell on land and rocks, and they eat not in winter. These serpents slay men and eat them
weeping, and they have no
tongue. In this country and many other, men caste seed of cotton, and sow it each year and it
grows as it were small trees,
and they bear cotton. In Araby is a kind of beast that some men call Garsantes (1), that is a
fair beast & he is higher
than a great courser or a stead but his neck is near xx cubits (2) long, and his crop and his tail like
a hart and he may look over a
high house.
(1) Giraffe
(2) cubits: Distance from fingers to elbow (45cm).