IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
CHAP. XVIII. THE KAAN'S LIONS AND LEOPARDS
J97
NOTE I. —So Alagaillans : " 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.
E" Kubilai Khan kept a whole army, 14,000 men, huntsmen, distributed in Peking and other cities in the present province of Chili ( Yuen-slii). 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.)—II. C.]
A
CHAPTER XVIII.
OF THE LIONS AND LEOPARDS AND `VOLVES THAT 1 HE 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 bath 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
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.