HUNTING WITH THE CHEETA 175 



out on these occasions are either mounted on 

 horseback, or go in pairs on bullock-carts like that 

 which carries the Cheeta. 



With regard to the introduction of this kind of 

 sport into Europe, Baron de Noirmont tells us 

 that, although it was not unknown formerly to the 

 Greeks and Romans, and the Crusaders brought 

 back reports of what they had seen of it in Syria, 

 yet it was not until the fourteenth century that 

 trained leopards were actually seen in Europe. 

 The Italians, he says, were the first to introduce 

 them, having the best opportunities for procuring 

 them, owing to their constant trade with the 

 Mussulman princes of the East. When, in 1459, 

 a French Ambassador, sent by the Duke of 

 Burgundy to Pope Pius II., stopped on his way 

 at Milan, and hunted with Francis Sforza, first 

 Duke of Milan, he was astonished to see leopards 

 carried on horseback (on a pillion behind their 

 owners) and slipped at hares, which they coursed 

 and killed. 



Baron de Noirmont mentions other instances of 

 the use of the Cheeta in Italy, and adds that both 

 Charles VIII. and Louis XII. of France kept 

 trained animals of this kind, with which they killed 

 hares and roedeer. After a kill, the Cheeta, on 

 beinof shown a little blood in a tin bowl, would 

 leave its prey and jump on the horse's crupper 

 behind its master. One would imagine that 

 the horse would require almost as much training 

 as the Cheeta to stand quiet in such circum- 

 stances. 



