The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano
CHAPTER XVIII.
1480 words | Chapter 346
OF THE LIONS AND LEOPARDS AND WOLVES THAT THE KAAN KEEPS
FOR THE CHASE.
The Emperor hath numbers of leopards{1} trained to the chase, and hath
also a great many lynxes taught in like manner to catch game, and which
afford excellent sport.{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.]{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.{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. It is much more lanky and long-legged than the pure
felines, is unable to climb trees, and has claws only partially
retractile. Wood calls it a link between the feline and canine
races. One thousand Cheetas were attached to Akbar’s hunting
establishment; and the chief one, called Semend-Manik, was carried
to the field in a palankin with a kettledrum beaten before him.
Boldensel in the first half of the 14th century speaks of the
Cheeta as habitually used in Cyprus; but, indeed, a hundred years
before, these animals had been constantly employed by the Emperor
Frederic II. in Italy, and accompanied him on all his marches. They
were introduced into France in the latter part of the 15th century,
and frequently employed by Lewis XI., Charles VIII., and Lewis XII.
The leopards were kept in a ditch of the Castle of Amboise, and the
name still borne by a gate hard by, _Porte des Lions_, is supposed
to be due to that circumstance. The _Mœurs et Usages du Moyen
Age_ (Lacroix), from which I take the last facts, gives copy of a
print by John Stradanus representing a huntsman with the leopard
on his horse’s crupper, like Kúblái’s (_supra_, Bk. I. ch. lxi.);
Frederic II. used to say of his Cheetas, “they knew how to ride.”
This way of taking the Cheeta to the field had been first employed
by the Khalif Yazid, son of Moáwiyah. The Cheeta often appears in
the pattern of silk damasks of the 13th and 14th centuries, both
Asiatic and Italian. (_Ayeen Akbery_, I. 304, etc.; _Boldensel_,
in _Canisii Thesaurus_, by _Basnage_, vol. IV. p. 339; _Kington’s
Fred. II._ I. 472, II. 156; _Bochart_, _Hierozoica_, 797; _Rock’s
Catalogue_, _passim_.)
[The hunting equipment of the Sultan consisted of about thirty
falconers on horseback who carried each a bird on his fist. These
falconers were in front of seven horsemen, who had behind a kind
of tamed tiger at times employed by His Highness for hare-hunting,
notwithstanding what may be said to the contrary by those who are
inclined not to believe the fact. It is a thing known by everybody
here, and cannot be doubted except by those who admit that they
believe nothing of foreign customs. These tigers were each covered
with a brocade cloth—and their peaceful attitude, added to their
ferocious and savage looks, caused at the same time astonishment
and fear in the soul of those whom they looked upon. (_Journal
d’Antoine Galland_, trad. par Ch. Schefer, I. p. 135.) The Cheeta
(_Gueparda jubata_) was, according to Sir W. Jones, first employed
in hunting antelopes by Hushing, King of Persia, 865 B.C.—H. C.]
NOTE 2.—The word rendered Lynxes is _Leu cervers_ (G. Text), _Louz
serviers_ of Pauthier’s MS. C, though he has adopted from another
_Loups_ simply, which is certainly wrong. The _Geog. Latin_ has
“_Linceos i.e. lupos cerverios_.” There is no doubt that the
_Loup-cervier_ is the Lynx. Thus Brunetto Latini, describing the
Loup-cervier, speaks of its remarkable powers of vision, and refers
to its agency in the production of the precious stone called
_Liguire_ (_i.e._ _Ligurium_), which the ancients fancied to come
from _Lync-urium_; the tale is in Theophrastus. Yet the quaint
Bestiary of Philip de Thaun, published by Mr. Wright, identifies it
with the Greek Hyena:—
“_Hyena_ e Griu num, que nus beste apellum,
Ceo est _Lucervere_, oler fait et mult est fere.”
[The Abbé Armand David writes (_Missions Cathol._ XXI. 1889, p.
227) that there is in China, from the mountains of Manchuria to
the mountains of Tibet, a lynx called by the Chinese _T’u-pao_
(earth-coloured panther); a lynx somewhat similar to the
_loup-cervier_ is found on the western border of China, and has
been named _Lyncus Desgodinsi_.—H. C.]
Hunting Lynxes were used at the Court of Akbar. They are also
mentioned by A. Hamilton as so used in Sind at the end of the
17th century. This author calls the animal a _Shoe-goose_! _i.e._
_Siya-gosh_ (Black-ear), the Persian name of the Lynx. It is
still occasionally used in the chase by natives of rank in India.
(_Brunetto Lat. Tresor_, p. 248; _Popular Treatises on Science
written during Mid. Ages_, 94; _Ayeen Akbery_, u.s.; _Hamilt. E.
Indies_, I. 125; _Vigne_, I. 42.)
NOTE 3.—The conception of a Tiger seems almost to have dropped
out of the European mind during the Middle Ages. Thus in a
mediæval Bestiary, a chapter on the Tiger begins: “_Une Beste
est qui est apelée Tigre c’est une manière de_ Serpent.” Hence
Polo can only call the Tigers, whose portrait he draws here not
incorrectly, _Lions_. So also nearly 200 years later Barbaro gives
a like portrait, and calls the animal _Leonza_. Marsden supposes
judiciously that the confusion may have been promoted by the
ambiguity of the Persian _Sher_.
[Illustration: The Búrgút Eagle. (After Atkinson.)
“=Il a encore aiglies qe sunt afaités à prendre leus et voupes et
dain et chavriou, et en prennent assez.=”]
The Chinese pilgrim, Sung-Yun (A.D. 518), saw two young lions
at the Court of Gandhára. He remarks that the pictures of these
animals common in China, were not at all good likenesses. (_Beal_,
p. 200.)
We do not hear in modern times of Tigers trained to the chase, but
Chardin says of Persia: “In hunting the larger animals they make
use of beasts of prey trained for the purpose, _lions_, leopards,
_tigers_, panthers, ounces.”
NOTE 4.—This is perfectly correct. In Eastern Turkestan, and among
the Kirghiz to this day, eagles termed _Búrgút_ (now well known to
be the Golden Eagle) are tamed and trained to fly at wolves, foxes,
deer, wild goats, etc. A Kirghiz will give a good horse for an
eagle in which he recognises capacity for training. Mr. Atkinson
gives vivid descriptions and illustrations of this eagle (which he
calls “Bear coote”), attacking both deer and wolves. He represents
the bird as striking one claw into the neck, and the other into the
back of its large prey, and then tearing out the liver with its
beak. In justice both to Marco Polo and to Mr. Atkinson, I have
pleasure in adding a vivid account of the exploits of this bird, as
witnessed by one of my kind correspondents, the Governor-General’s
late envoy to Kashgar. And I trust Sir Douglas Forsyth will pardon
my quoting his own letter just as it stands[1]:—“Now for a story
of the _Burgoot_—Atkinson’s ‘Bearcoote.’ I think I told you it was
the Golden Eagle and supposed to attack wolves and even bears.
One day we came across a wild hog of enormous size, far bigger
than any that gave sport to the Tent Club in Bengal. The Burgoot
was immediately let loose, and went straight at the hog, which it
kicked, and flapped with its wings, and utterly _flabbergasted_,
whilst our Kashgaree companions attacked him with sticks and
brought him to the ground. As Friar Odoric would say, I, T. D.
F., have seen this with mine own eyes.”—Shaw describes the rough
treatment with which the Búrgút is tamed. Baber, when in the Bajaur
Hills, notices in his memoirs: “This day Búrgút took a deer.”
(_Timkowski_, I. 414; _Levchine_, p. 77; _Pallas_, _Voyages_,
I. 421; _J. R. A. S._ VII. 305; _Atkinson’s Siberia_, 493; and
_Amoor_, 146–147; _Shaw_, p. 157; _Baber_, p. 249.)
[The Golden Eagle (_Aquila chrysaetus_) is called at Peking _Hoy
tiao_ (black eagle). (_David et Oustalet_, _Oiseaux de la Chine_,
p. 8.)—H. C.]
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[1] Dated Yangi Hissar, 10th April, 1874.
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