88 WILD ANIMALS. 



see fhe birds sitting in mew, and sometimes he rides througli the 

 park with a leopard behind him on his horse's croup ; and then, if 

 he sees any animal that takes his fancy, he slips his leopard at 

 it, and the game when taken is made over to feed the hawks 

 in mew. This he does for diversion." 



The Mogul emperors constantly used this animal, and kept 

 surprising numbers of them. Akbar the Great,^ Emperor of 

 Hindostan, 1556 — 1605, had one thousand cheetahs to accompany 

 him on his hunting expedition, forming in itself a large encamp- 

 ment, for they were kept with great state, and the chief one called 

 Semendmanick, used to be carried to the field in a palankin 

 attended by his appointed servants, and a kettledrum beaten 

 before him. 



Sir John Ohardin ^ states that in Persia, for their great hunting 

 expeditions they used wild beasts that had been taught, such as 

 lions, leopards, tigers, and panthers, and they called them yowrze. 

 A horseman carried one of them behind him, but when he was in 

 Hircania in 1666, he was told that when the animals were too 

 big to be carried on horseback they were carried in iron cages, on 

 an elephant without the hood ; the keeper always had his hand 

 ready on the cage door, so that when the beast sighted any game 

 and " screamed," he was let out immediately, and leaping down 

 made for his victim. 



In India cheetahs are frequently led about with a chain and 

 collar like a dog, and are often to be seen in the streets and bazaars, 

 as they are considered perfectly quiet and inoffensive creatures. 



They have, however, to be caught wild and tamed to make good 

 hunters, and natives say that they must not be taken when too 

 young, for if caught as cubs they are useless for the purpose 

 through not having been taught by their parents how to pull down 

 their prey. 



The way in which these animals are used is taken from descrip- 

 tions given by eye-witnesses of the sport. The cheetah is hooded, 

 like the falcon was in hawking, and is held by a chain or cord 

 attached to its collar, being conveyed to the ground in a common 



" Ayeen Akbery, or the Institutes of the Emperor Akbar." 

 ^ " Voyage de Chardin en Perse." 



