190 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



to leap over the ranks of the guards but was killed' 

 by them. The third, when loose, at once made towards the 

 Emperor's tent«, and was quickly despatched with the 

 soldiers' spears. This Emperor used to hunt tigers in their 

 native woods in his youth, but being now sixty, he refrained 

 from pursuing them beyond this immense forest, which is 

 enclosed for many miles extent with a high wall of brick. It 

 contains, besides tigers, leopards, lynxes, boars, deer, hares, 

 partridges, quails, and pheasants. The Emperor was 

 surrounded by his sporting establishment, and close to him 

 was the master of the chase with greyhounds. The grand 

 falconer was also present with his hawks, many of which 

 were as white as doves, with only one or two black feathers - 

 in their wings or tails; these came from Siberia. They 

 generally raked the pheasants flying; but if the pheasants 

 escaped to the reeds or bushes, they nevertheless soon 

 caught them." 



This graphic picture serves to show that in sport, as in 

 so many other things, human nature is human nature 

 wherever found. The sports just described have for gener- 

 ations had their counterpart in royal circles in Europe. 

 The German princes of the past vied with each other in offer- 

 ing to distinguished guests just such entertainment as was 

 thought fitting by Kanghi. They had no tigers or leopards,, 

 unless some could be specially imported for the occasion, 

 but lynxes, bears, and boars there were in plenty, and in the 

 current issue of "Country Life" there may be seen repro- 

 ductions of old pictures showing especially how herds of 

 deer were enclosed within a circular fence round which thej' 

 rushed, the Coburg sportsmen standing in the centre and 

 showing their skill by bringing down their helpless game.. 

 We should hardly consider it the highest form of sport in 

 these days. 



But one reference in Rankin's citation shows that the 

 hardy Manchu was no feather-bed sportsman: the Emperor 

 had been used " to hunt tigers in their native woods in his 

 youth. " There is no need to consider this as a mere piece 

 of court flattery. It is quite likely to be literally true, for 

 the Manchu before his degenerate days began, before 

 luxury of every kind and the sapping of virilit\' in the 

 harem had made him a byword for flabby obesity, before 

 in short his military qualities had been undermined by 

 luxurious ease and plenty, was a man of the truest 

 physical kind, upstanding, strong, and bold. He was a man 

 of the plains and hardly less so, when occasion required, of 

 the mountains. He combined almost equally the qualities 

 of both, for whilst in his native haunts there were illimitable 

 distances over which he could scamper on his sturdy ponies,. 



