EVOLUTION OF THE PEKINGESE TYPE 



but at present are hardly seen. They were so small that the 

 ladies carried them in their sleeves." 



The long coat, including the flowing sleeve, was for many 

 centuries the Chinese hallmark of gentility. During the K'ang 

 Hsi period spectacles and thumb -ring gave added importance 

 to the wearer, and a little later it became the fashion to greet a 

 friend by producing a costly snuff-bottle for his admiration 

 and refreshment. This custom became universal under Tao 

 Kuang, a stout supporter of snuff. His conjugal devotion 

 and the passion of his wife for dog-breeding were therefore 

 fittingly pictured upon the snuff-bottle. So carefully was the 

 breeding of the Palace dogs attended to during this period, 

 that eight distinct varieties are said to have been evolved, 

 giving a fresh meaning ("pah'rh '" in colloquial " eight ") to 

 their race-name. Their differences appear in some cases to 

 have been largely a matter of colour and length of coat. The 

 Yellow City must have been the home of many thousands 

 of dogs, and the eunuchs, up to four thousand in number, 

 living in the " Forty-eight Places " of the palace, vied with 

 one another in producing remarkable specimens. It was not 

 the custom of that period to dock the tails of the palace dogs! 

 This custom does not appear to have been introduced previous 

 to the Hsien Feng (1851) period. This Emperor shared the 

 enthusiasm of his predecessor for the Imperial breed. Short 



' docking " appears to have been introduced, and to persist, 

 under the impression that more compact growth of the body is 

 thereby induced. 

 The late Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi's fondness for the 



' Pekingese " breed is well known. She and the Eastern 

 Empress had nearly a hundred dogs under their personal 

 supervision about thirty-five years ago. She seems to have 

 encouraged the comparison of her lion-dogs to the spirit-lions 

 of Buddha, with a view to attracting to herself universally 



