HUNTING WITH THE CHEETA 171 



When yElian wrote, in the third century of our 

 era, the natives of India knew how to train the 

 black-maned Hon of that country for the chase, 

 leading it in a slip. The Greeks and Romans also 

 tamed wild beasts of various kinds, including lions 

 and tigers, the Romans from the time of Marc 

 Anthony (as we learn from Pliny) employing lions 

 to draw processional cars, although it does not 

 appear that they ever used them for hunting. 

 Many instances of the use of lions by the Roman 

 emperors for drawing chariots will be found quoted 

 by Ranking in his Wars and Sports of the Mongols 

 and Romans (4to, 1826, pp. 320, 321); amongst 

 others a quotation from Capitolinus, to the effect 

 that Gordian possessed no less than sixty lions 

 and thirty leopards tamed. 



With regard to the Tiger, we learn from Marco 

 Polo that the Great Khan of Tartary had a number 

 of leopards and lynxes trained to hunt, as well as 

 several "great lions" (as he terms them) with 

 splendidly coloured skins striped with black and 

 white, which were trained to take wild boars, wild 

 cattle, deer, roebucks, and other beasts, and were 

 taken to the field in cages drawn on carts. Although 

 this description evidently points to the employment 

 of tigers in the chase, it is very difficult to believe 

 that men in any age could be found to tame and 

 handle so ferocious an animal. 



The training of the Cheeta and the Caracal, or 

 Desert Lynx, would be a much simpler matter, and, 

 as we know by the relation of modern travellers 

 who have been eye-witnesses of the sport, is still 



