HISTORICAL REFERENCES TO PEKINGESE TYPE 



carried on for a long period over a land route, through 

 deserts and over mountains, requiring a journey of two years 

 through the heart of Asia. Silk and other valuable mer- 

 chandise may have filtered through after the Arab conquests, 

 but as the canine race is unclean to the Mohammedan, it 

 appears less likely that dogs were sent as presents to China 

 from Fu Lin after its capture by the Arabs. 



The fact that shortness of nose is not recorded as a special 

 characteristic of these dogs appears to indicate that they were 

 remarkable for their small size and intelligence rather than 

 for other special characteristics. Early writers refer to the 

 remarkable small Maltese pet dogs from Zapuntello and 

 Malta as being an article of export throughout the Near 

 East. This fact makes it more than possible that Fu Lin 

 dogs were of the " Maltese " race, but whether, in these early 

 days, there were two or three varieties as described in 

 A.D. 1755, " short-haired or long-haired or maned," * and 

 " in size resembling the ordinary weasel," is of course 

 unknown. 



Comparison of the Japanese and Pekingese races at early 

 periods should throw light upon the nature of the small dogs 

 of the time, for, if both the modern " Pekingese " and 

 " Japanese " dogs are derived from the same ancestral stock 

 of this period, and if there has been little subsequent crossing 

 of the breeds, their ancestor must then have closely resembled 

 these two present-day races. 



We now reach one of the most famous references to small 

 dogs in Chinese history. It is recorded that the Emperor 

 Ming of the T'ang Dynasty, who ruled from A.D. 713-755, 

 had a favourite wife named Yang Kwei Fei, whose beauty is 

 historic. It happened one day that the Emperor was playing 



* Johnston's " ./'Elian " ; " Toy Dogs and their Ancestors," by the Hon. Mrs. Neville 

 Lytton, p. 30. 



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