CHINESE SPORTSMAN AND WEAPONS 211 



for the sport, but for the reward paid by 

 the officials for the capture or killing of a 

 beast of prey. There is a profit also deriv- 

 ed from the sale of the skins and horns of 

 wild animals. The means employed to 

 capture big game is not sportsmanlike 

 according to the modern definition. Traps 

 and snares of many conceivable designs are 

 used, one of which is a cross-bow loaded 

 with poison arrows which are discharged 

 into the body of the animal that happens to 

 touch^the simple trigger lying across the path 

 to some watering place. The poison used 

 is a secret but it is believed by Chinese to 

 be derived from snakes, lizards, toads and 

 centipedes combined with some metal sub- 

 stance like phosphorous. It is deadly in 

 its effect to man or beast. Another snare, 

 used by the Miao sportsman, is made by 

 bending stout bamboos or young pine-trees 

 and tying them down to other trees near 

 the ground with a running noose into which 

 the animal gets caught by the neck and, in 

 struggling to get away, detaches the 

 trigger, when the tree springs upright and 

 thereby hangs and strangles the animal to 

 death, a method that has the advantage 

 of leaving the flesh free from poison. 



