WOLVES OF TARTARY. 121 



which is sho^\ai by those of Western Europe ; probably, 

 because they are not so well acquainted with the power of 

 firearms. It is as true now as when the Jesuit missionary 

 Hue wrote the account of his remarkable travels, that the 

 Mongolian wolf attacks man more willingly than any other 

 animal : he will dash through a flock of sheep, without 

 inflicting any injury, in order to pounce upon the shepherd. 

 In the neighbourhood of the Great Wall, he says, they 

 make frequent descents upon the Tartar-Chinese villages ; 

 entering the farms, but turning aside with contempt from 

 the domestic animals they encounter, to select their victims 

 in the owner and his household. Not a village in Tartary 

 but is called upon every year to deplore some calamity of 

 this kind. 



No wonder that the hunters of the plains pursue these 

 ferocious beasts with an implacable hatred. The news that 

 a wolf has been seen near an encampment is a signal for 

 all the able-bodied males to mount their steeds and join in 

 the chase ; and as each cavalier has always two or three 

 saddled horses in readiness near his tent, the plain is 

 speedily covered, as if by magic, with a cloud of eager 

 hunters. The weapon used is a long rod, which is fur- 

 nished with a long cord terminating in a slip-knot, some- 

 thing like a lasso. " Thus, in whatever direction the w^olf 

 may seek to escape, he encounters a band of determined 

 adversaries, whose cry, as they precipitate themselves upon 

 their traditional foe, is, 'No quarter!' There are no 

 mountain-sides so rugged or so difficult that the nimble 

 horses of the Tartars cannot pursue him thither. The 

 cavalier who finally overtakes the beast flings a lasso 



