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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
i
400
MARCO POLO BOOK II.
loll
a
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* :" 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 carne 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 ; Lew/line, 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 clzrysaetus) is called at Peking Hoy tiao (black eagle). (David et Oustalet, Oiseaux de la Chine, p. 8.) II. C.]
CHAPTER XIX.
CONCERNING THE TWO BROTHERS WHO HAVE CHARGE OF THE
KAAN'S HOUNDS.
THE Emperor hath two Barons who are own brothers,
one called Baian and the other Mingan ;- and these two
are styled Clinuchi (or Cuinic/ii), which is as much as to
say, " The Keepers of the Mastiff Dogs." 1 Each of
these brothers hath l o,000 men under his orders ; each
body of I o,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 I o,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 I o,000 men and something like 5000 dogs, goes
* Dated Yangi Hissar, loth April, 1874.
OE I
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