Grand Duke Herzog, having learned of the magnificent creature called a giraffe, demanded that one be procured for his taxidermy collection in time for his annual ball. His retainers, who to a one had a better grasp of geography than the Grand Duke, knew that there was not enough time to source a giraffe from the wild, nor could they find a willing seller amid the handful of menageries that had one.

Then one of the retainers, a minor noble and amateur taxidermist named Ulfmann, had an idea. Grand Duke Herzog had never seen a giraffe in a menagerie, but had only descriptions and illustrations. The court could easily build an animal to giraffid specifications from spare parts in time for the ball, and then procure a more convincing specimen later. To this end, Ulfmann was granted access to the ducal taxidermy lab and its varied collection of leftovers.

He and a team of twelve others hastily patched together a “giraffe” to the best of their ability. It was really more of a stretched lion, as its back and head were from an African big cat, filled in with deer parts and the occasional bit of leather. For hooves, they helped themselves to the local glue factory, and the giraffe’s small horns were carved down from a stag.

When, at the unveiling, Grand Duke HErzon remarked of the giraffe looked like a stretched lion, his retainers were quick to congratulate him on his powers of perception, for it was the opinion of many learned men that the two were close cousins. Ulfmann, swept up in the throes of his success, even added the detail that lions and giraffes occasionally interbred to produce liraffes.

Much to his consternation and sorrow, the Grand Duke, entranced by the idea, demanded a stuffed liraffe as a surprise birthday present for the Grand Duchess–immediately.

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