HISTORICAL REFERENCES TO PEKINGESE TYPE 



another tune to stimulate the cat in its attack upon the 

 rodent." * 



These conflicting statements are from authoritative sources, 

 and it is impossible to offer a satisfactory explanation, 

 remarks Macgowan. He holds that the cat was brought to 

 East Asia from the West. The animal is named but twice 

 in all the long periods of early Chinese history, and as a 

 domesticated animal only once. Possibly the cat of Con- 

 fucian times was a wild cat only partially domesticated. 



Cats appear to have continued to be the favourite pets of 

 the Chinese court ladies to the end of the Ming period, but 

 soon perhaps gave place to the small breeds of dogs. In 

 1655, soon after passing Lin-ching on the Grand Canal, 

 John Nieuhoff wrote : 



" In this Province [about Peking] are white rough cats, not 

 unlike the Malteeza Dogs, with long ears, which are there 

 the ladies' joysting hounds or play-fellows ; they will catch 

 no mice, being too much made of." f 



Linchinchow is still well-known in China for its white cats 

 having eyes of different colours. It may have been the home 

 of the " white cat of a rare species brought from Asia, whose 

 eyes were of different colours, the right yellow as a topaz, the 

 left blue as sapphire," which was provided by Leonardo da 

 Vinci for the amusement of Monna Lisa del Gioconda when 

 painting her portrait, 1503-1 506. J 



Athanasius Kircher, when describing the custom of foot- 

 binding among the Chinese ladies, is translated, " Others say 

 that this co-ercitation was enacted by a law of the wise men, 

 that women may learn to sit at home, which if they do not 

 voluntarily, they are by this means compelled. Their habit 



* " Cats," China Br. R.A.S., 1891, p. 128. 



f John Ogilby's " Embassy from the East India Company," p. 105, 1669. 



| " Roman de Leonard de Vinci," J. Sorreze. 



John Ogilby's " Embassy from the East India Company," p. 70. 



137 



