HUNTING WITH THE CHEETA 



Many animals of the cat tribe, from the lion to the 

 domestic cat, have been trained to the chase from a 

 very early period, and some of them are still used 

 for that purpose in certain countries of the East. 

 The Lion, Tiger, Leopard, and especially the 

 Cheeta, as well as the Caracal, or Desert Lynx, 

 have all played their parts in the chase in Asia and 

 Egypt at different periods. Hunting with the 

 Cheeta was even introduced into Europe during 

 the fourteenth century, and Leopards (as Cheetas 

 were formerly called, from the supposition that they 

 were a cross between the lion and the panther, 

 leo and/>ard) figured in the hunting establishments of 

 the French kings and certain Italian princes 

 between the end of the fifteenth and beginning of 

 the seventeenth centuries. 



We learn from Sir Gardner Wilkinson's work 

 that the ancient Egyptians, who must have been 

 skilful in taming and training wild animals, " hunted 

 with lions which were trained expressly for the 

 chase, like the Cheeta or hunting leopard of 

 India, being brought up from cubs in a tame state."" 

 This assertion is disputed by Lenoirmont, in his 

 Recherches sur l' Histoire des Animaux Domestiques, 

 although he admits the no less remarkable fact 

 that lions were formerly employed in war. 



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