Those At A Greater
Distance Cannot Send The Game, But They Have To Send The Skins After
Tanning Them, And These Are Employed In The Making Of Equipments For The
Emperor's Army.[NOTE 1]
NOTE 1.
- So Magaillans: "Game is so abundant, especially at the capital,
that every year during the three winter months you see at different
places, intended for despatch thither, besides great piles of every sort
of wildfowl, rows of four-footed game of a gunshot or two in length: the
animals being all frozen and standing on their feet. Among other species
you see three sundry kinds of bears ... and great abundance of other
animals, as stags and deer of different sorts, boars, elks, hares,
rabbits, squirrels, wild-cats, rats, geese, ducks, very fine jungle-fowl,
etc., and all so cheap that I never could have believed it" (pp. 177-178).
As this writer mentions wild-cats, we may presume that the "lions" of
Polo also were destined to be eaten.
["Kubilai Khan kept a whole army, 14,000 men, huntsmen, distributed in
Peking and other cities in the present province of Chili (Yuen-shi). The
Khan used to hunt in the Peking plain from the beginning of spring, until
his departure to Shang-tu. There are in the Peking department many low and
marshy places, stretching often to a considerable extent and abounding in
game. In the biography of Ai-sie (Yuen shi, chap. cxxxiv.), who was a
Christian, it is mentioned that Kubilai was hunting also in the department
of Pao-ting fu." (Palladius, p. 45.) - H. C.]
CHAPTER XVIII.
OF THE LIONS AND LEOPARDS AND WOLVES THAT THE KAAN KEEPS FOR THE CHASE.
The Emperor hath numbers of leopards[NOTE 1] trained to the chase, and
hath also a great many lynxes taught in like manner to catch game, and
which afford excellent sport.[NOTE 2] He hath also several great Lions,
bigger than those of Babylonia, beasts whose skins are coloured in the
most beautiful way, being striped all along the sides with black, red, and
white. These are trained to catch boars and wild cattle, bears, wild
asses, stags, and other great or fierce beasts. And 'tis a rare sight, I
can tell you, to see those lions giving chase to such beasts as I have
mentioned! When they are to be so employed the Lions are taken out in a
covered cart, and every Lion has a little doggie with him. [They are
obliged to approach the game against the wind, otherwise the animals would
scent the approach of the Lion and be off.][NOTE 3]
There are also a great number of eagles, all broken to catch wolves,
foxes, deer, and wild goats, and they do catch them in great numbers. But
those especially that are trained to wolf-catching are very large and
powerful birds, and no wolf is able to get away from them.[NOTE 4]
NOTE 1. - The Cheeta or Hunting-Leopard, still kept for the chase by native
noblemen in India, is an animal very distinct from the true leopard.
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