DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



I have mentioned, however, to wit that from March to 

 October, everybody may take these animals as he list." 



Many writers have suggested, basing their opinions upon 

 translations from Polo's work, that the dogs employed in these 

 Imperial hunts were of mastiff breed. Some have gone so 

 far as to suggest that, in consequence, they must have come 

 from Tibet. It appears likely that the word used by Polo 

 represented merely dogs having considerable size, strength, 

 and hunting instinct such as were found in Europe and were 

 used for hunting heavy game. 



The French word from which " mastiff " is derived indi- 

 cates a mixture in the dog's race. Its earliest types were found 

 both in Gaul and Britain. This race helped no doubt to produce 

 the hunting dogs for which Britain was justly famous in mediaeval 

 times. In 1540 Henry VIII's envoy to the King of France 

 wrote: " The Constable took me to the King's dinner, whome 

 we found speaking of certain ' masties ' you gave him at Calais, 

 and how long it took to train them ; for when he first let slip 

 one at a wild-boar, he spied a white horse with a page upon 

 him, and he took the horse by the throat and they could not 

 pluck him off until he had strangled it. He laughed very 

 heartily at telling this, and he spoke of the pleasure he now 

 takes in shooting with a cross-bow, desiring to have a hound 

 that would draw well to a hurt deer. Your Majesty's father 

 sent to King Lewis a very good one of a mean sort. I hear 

 you could not do him a greater pleasure than send him such 

 a hound." * 



This dog, however, has changed in modern times. " The 

 mastiff of Tibet was larger than the old English (whose ears 

 were formerly often semi-erect), but is smaller than the 

 modern English mastiff, averaging 27-30 inches at the 

 shoulder." This evolution modifying the dog's form to 



* " Calendar of State Papers. Henry VIII." 

 60 



