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fine-jungle fowl, &c. &c., and all so cheap that I never could have believed it" (p. 177-8). As this writer mentions wild-cats, we may presume that the "Lions" of Polo also were destined to be eaten,

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF THE LIONS AND LEOPARDS AND WOLVES THAT THE KAAN KEEPS FOR THE CHASE.

THE Emperor hath numbers of leopards trained to the chase,' and hath also a great many lynxes taught in like manner to catch game, and which afford excellent sport.' 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.]'

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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

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one, called Semend-Manik, was carried to the field in a palankin with a kettle-drum 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 carried on the horse's crupper like Kublai's (supra Book I. ch. lxi.); "they knew how to ride," Frederic used to say. 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, &c.; 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.)

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 :

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Lynxes were used at the Court of Akbar in hunting hares, foxes, and antelopes. They are also mentioned by A. Hamilton, as so used in Sind in the beginning of last 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 dropt out of the European mind during the middle ages. Thus in a medieval 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.

The Chinese pilgrim, Sing-Yun (A.D. 318), 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 Barkút are tamed and trained to fly at wolves, foxes, deer, wild goats, &c. A Kirghiz will give a good horse for an eagle in which he recognises capacity for training. Pallas says the bird is the Golden Eagle, and Mr. Gould informs me that he has no doubt it is so. Mr. Atkinson gives vivid descriptions and illustrations of this eagle (which he calls "Bear coote"), attacking both deer and wolves. In both cases 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. Some things in these passages seem open to criticism, but Mr. Atkinson is no more. (Timkowski, I. 414; Levchine, p. 77; Pallas, Voyages, I. 421; Izzet-Ullah in J. R. A. S. VII. 305; Atkinson's Or. and W. Siberia, 493; and Travels in Regions of the Amoor, 146-7.)

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CHAPTER XIX.

CONCERNING THE TWO BROTHERS WHO HAVE CHARGE OF THE KAAN'S HOUNDS.

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THE Emperor hath two Barons who are own brothers, one called Baian and the other Mingan; and these two are styled Chinuchi (or Cunichi) which is as much as to say, "The Keepers of the Mastiff Dogs." Each of these brothers hath 10,000 men under his orders; each body of 10,000 being dressed alike, the one in red and the other in blue, and whenever they accompany the Lord to the chase, they wear this livery, in order to be recognized. Out of each body of 10,000 there are 2000 men who are each in charge of one or more great mastiffs, so that the whole number of these is very large. And when the Prince goes a-hunting, one of those Barons, with his 10,000 men and something like 5000 dogs, goes towards the right, whilst the other goes towards the left with his party in like manner. They move along, all abreast of one another, so that the whole line extends over a full day's journey, and no animal can escape them. Truly it is a glorious sight to see the working of the dogs and the huntsmen on such an occasion! And as the Lord rides a-fowling across the plains, you will see these big hounds coming tearing up, one pack after a bear, another pack after a stag, or some other beast, as it may hap, and running the game down now on this side and now on that, so that it is really a most delightful sport and spectacle.

[The Two Brothers I have mentioned are bound by the tenure of their office to supply the Kaan's Court from October to the end of March with 1000 head of game daily, whether of beasts or birds, and not counting quails; and also with fish to the best of their ability, allowing fish enough for three persons to reckon as equal to one head of game.]

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Now I have told you of the Masters of the Hounds and all about them, and next will I tell you how the Lord goes off on an expedition for the space of three months.

NOTE 1. Though this particular Bayan and Mingan are not likely to be mentioned in history, the names are both good Mongol names; Bayan that of a great soldier under Kublai, of whom we shall hear afterwards; and Mingan that of one of Chinghiz's generals.

The title of "Master of the Mastiffs" belonged to a high Court official at Constantinople in former days, Sámsúnji Báshi, and I have no doubt Marco has given the exact interpretation of the title of the two Barons; though it is difficult to trace its elements. It is read variously Cunici (i. e. Kunichi) and Cinuci (i.e. Chinuchi). It is evidently a word of analogous structure to Kushchi, the Master of the Falcons; Parschi, the Master of the Leopards. Professor Schiefner thinks it is probably corrupted from Noghaichi, which appears in Kovalevski's Mongol Dict. as chasseur qui a soins des chiens courants." The word occurs, he points out, in Sanang Setzen, where Schmidt translates it Aufseher über Hunde. (See S. S. p. 39.)

The metathesis of Noghai-chi into Kuni-chi is the only drawback to this otherwise apt solution. We generally shall find Polo's Oriental words much more accurately expressed than this would imply. I have hazarded a suggestion of (Or. Turkish) Chong-It-chi, "Keeper of the Big Dogs," which Professor Vámbéry thinks possible (see "chong, big, strong," in his Tschagataische Sprachstudien, p. 282, and note in Lord Strangford's Selected Writings, II. 169). This would exactly correspond to the rendering of Pipino's Latin translation, "hoc est canum magnorum Praefecti." Chinuchi again would be (in Mongol) "Wolf-keepers." It is at least possible that the great dogs which Polo terms mastiffs may have been known by such a name. We apply the term Wolf-dog to several varieties, and in Macbeth's enumeration we have

"Hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, Shoughs, water-rugs, and Demi-Wolves."

CHAPTER XX.

HOW THE EMPEROR GOES ON A HUNTING EXPEDITION.

AFTER he has stopped at his capital city those three months that I mentioned, to wit, December, January,

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