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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
et
CHAP. XVIII. LYNXES AND BÚRGÚT EAGLE
399
called by the Chinese T':quo (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 Akbe,y, u.s. ; Hamill. 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 mediaeval Bestiary, a chapter on the Tiger begins : " Une Beste est qui est apelée Tigre c'est une manQre 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 Shen.
41.
The Búrgút Eagle. (After Atkinson.)
a mote nigli.ez tit znnt nfnit.éz it prenbre t.tnz .et btrupts ,et bain .ct chnbxirn, ,
.et .en prenn.cnt nZZ.tZ."
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 co/rect. 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
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