[The hunting equipment of the Sultan consisted of about thirty falconers on horseback who carried each a bird on his fist.  These falconers were in front of seven horsemen, who had behind a kind of tamed tiger at times employed by His Highness for hare-hunting, notwithstanding what may be said to the contrary by those who are inclined not to believe the fact.  It is a thing known by everybody here, and cannot be doubted except by those who admit that they believe nothing of foreign customs.  These tigers were each covered with a brocade cloth—­and their peaceful attitude, added to their ferocious and savage looks, caused at the same time astonishment and fear in the soul of those whom they looked upon. (Journal d’Antoine Galland, trad. par Ch.  Schefer, I. p. 135.) The Cheeta (Gueparda jubata) was, according to Sir W. Jones, first employed in hunting antelopes by Hushing, King of Persia, 865 B.C.—­H.  C.]

NOTE 2.—­The word rendered Lynxes is Leu cervers (G.  Text), Louz serviers of Pauthier’s MS. C, though he has adopted from another Loups simply, which is certainly wrong.  The Geog.  Latin has “Linceos i.e. lupos cerverios.”  There is no doubt that the Loup-cervier is the Lynx.  Thus Brunetto Latini, describing the Loup-cervier, speaks of its remarkable powers of vision, and refers to its agency in the production of the precious stone called Liguire (i.e. Ligurium), which the ancients fancied to come from Lync-urium; the tale is in Theophrastus).  Yet the quaint Bestiary of Philip de Thaun, published by Mr. Wright, identifies it with the Greek Hyena:—­

  “Hyena e Griu num, que nus beste apellum,
  Ceo est Lucervere, oler fait et mult est fere.”

[The Abbe Armand David writes (Missions Cathol. XXI. 1889, p. 227) that there is in China, from the mountains of Manchuria to the mountains of Tibet, a lynx called by the Chinese T’u-pao (earth-coloured panther); a lynx somewhat similar to the loup-cervier is found on the western border of China, and has been named Lyncus Desgodinsi.—­H.  C.]

Hunting Lynxes were used at the Court of Akbar.  They are also mentioned by A. Hamilton as so used in Sind at the end of the 17th century.  This author calls the animal a Shoe-goose! i.e.  Siya-gosh (Black-ear), the Persian name of the Lynx.  It is still occasionally used in the chase by natives of rank in India. (Brunetto Lat.  Tresor, p. 248; Popular Treatises on Science written during Mid.  Ages, 94; Ayeen Akbery, u.s.; Hamilt.  E. Indies, I. 125; Vigne, I. 42.)

NOTE 3.—­The conception of a Tiger seems almost to have dropped out of the European mind during the Middle Ages.  Thus in a mediaeval Bestiary, a chapter on the Tiger begins:  “Une Beste est qui est apelee Tigre c’est une maniere de Serpent.”  Hence Polo can only call the Tigers, whose portrait he draws here not incorrectly, Lions.  So also nearly 200 years later Barbaro gives a like portrait, and calls the animal Leonza.  Marsden supposes judiciously that the confusion may have been promoted by the ambiguity of the Persian Sher.