C 137 ] 



CHAPTEE XIX. 



SOME CHINESE METHODS OF SHOOTING AND TRAPPING GAME. 



By Kum Ayean, 

 of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company. 



CEW foreigners have ever interested themselves in the observance of even the commonest 

 * native methods of obtaining game, and not many Chinese have ever set themselves the 

 task of describing them. This then is my apology for what follows. 



From time immemorial a custom has obtained among the princes and nobles in China 

 of organising at stated times hunting expeditions, and proceeding to the scene with their 

 chariots. Their followers, fully equipped with bows and arrows, " were supposed to show by 

 their sports that they were au fait with the tactics of ascending the military ladder." 



These hunts were, according to the season in which they took place, distinguished by 

 various names — as, for instance, Spring breeding (^ J£), when pregnant animals were not 

 allowed to be killed ; Sutnmer sprouting ( M "ffif ), when the tender blades of the growing 

 crops were not to be trampled on ; Autumn killing (li'^J ^ ), when game was full grown and 

 might legitimately be killed ; Winter burning ( ^ ^ ), when the grasses and covers were 

 burnt down to limit the shelters. 



The chiefs of these hunting expeditions therefore, having in view the preservation 

 of game and the fitness of the season, have always regarded the autumn and winter hunts 

 as being the right times to engage in such sport, when game is full grown, plump and 

 strong. Great proficiency was sometimes attained by the marksman, and poets have often 

 sung his praises. The "chief," so marked out from his good shooting, not only organised 

 these expeditions but was given authority to command his followers just as he liked. 

 When after big game, the sportsman who killed a male was termed " king," and the killer 

 of a female, "prince." Besides his large retinue the wealthy sportsman was accompanied 

 by any number of hunting dogs ; the chiefs rode on fleet chargers, while their attendants 

 on foot were clothed in raiment as closely approximating as possible the colours of the 

 contiguous trees and grass, and wore sandals made of strips of cotton cloth, their legs being 

 tightly bandaged to prevent strains or other injury. Some carried swords, others sticks, 

 bows and arrows, spears and other weapons; while the beaters thoroughly flogged the 

 bushes and set the game afoot, which was pursued by quick men carrying torches. Rides 

 were cut through the covers and the game driven down them into carefully hidden pitfalls. 



Pits are made much in the same manner all over the world. In China a hole or well 

 is dug in the ground about lO feet deep and 20 feet wide, the pit being rather wider at the 

 bottom and staked with pointed sticks : the top is covered over with branches of trees, tufts 

 of grass, straw, sand and earth, and made to look quite natural. 



