EVOLUTION OF THE PEKINGESE TYPE 



where he purchased " one of the little dogs peculiar to Pe- 

 king," and paid about two-and-a-half dollars (then about ten 

 shillings) for it, another being bought for twenty dollars.* 



The difficulty of obtaining dogs from the palace prior to the 

 Boxer troubles in 1900, together with the long voyage to 

 Western Europe, accounts for the fact that few palace speci- 

 mens were imported prior to the death of the late Empress 

 Dowager in 1911. 



After the Boxer trouble, on returning to Peking from 

 Shansi, the Empress Tzu Hsi presented Mrs. Conger, wife 

 of the American Minister, with a pair of the palace dogs. She 

 also gave one to Miss Carl, who painted her portraits, one of 

 which includes the Empress's favourite dog Shadza (lit. 

 " fool "). 



At the funeral of the Empress Dowager in 1911, Moo-Tan 

 (Peony), a yellow-and-white dog with a white spot on its 

 forehead, was led before her coffin by the chief eunuch, Pi 

 Hsiao Li, in obedience to the precedent which had been set 

 nine hundred years before, when the favourite dog of the 

 Emperor T'ai Tsung of the Sung Dynasty was led in state to 

 his master's tomb. In due accord with precedent, too, the 

 late Empress's dog was supposed to have died at the time ; 

 others state that it was sold by one of the eunuchs. 



The Lung Fu Ssu Temple, mentioned by Dr. Rennie, is 

 now the scene of a fair held for six days in every month. 

 It shares with the Hu Kuo Ssu, another old Lamaist temple, 

 the distinction of being the only Chinese market for " Pek- 

 ingese " dogs, and is regularly attended by eunuchs from the 

 palace, who often sell inferior dogs at prices varying from a 

 few to about thirty dollars. The story is current in Peking 

 of the much-prized European pet of the Imperial breed which 

 was stolen and ultimately redeemed from a Chinese owner. 



* D. F. Rennie, " Peking and the Pekingese," John Murray, 1865. 



153 



