CHAPTER XXX. NATURAL HISTORY. Elephants, Rhinoceroses, Tigers, Wild Boars, Buffaloes, Bears, Wolves, Foxes, Camels, Deer, Goats, Elks, and Monkeys. -The Fokian Monster. Five Thousand Elephants. Hunting the Che-kiang or Musk-deer.-The Dseren and the Arnee.-Birds, Pheasants.-Reptiles, Tortoises, Serpents.Fish.-The Yellow Fish, Armour Fish, and Gold Fish.-. Fishing with the Diving-bird, a kind of Pelican.-Insects. IN giving you a few “ points and pickings" of natural history so far as it regards China, I am not about to surprise you with a great many wonderful relations of wonderful animals. I cannot treat you with a tale of a lion with shaggy mane, and terrible teeth and claws, whose roar is like thunder, and whose paw, with a single blow, would break the back-bone of a horse; nor with a relation of a giraffe eighteen or twenty feet high, flying like the wind across the sultry desert, outstripping the dogs which are pursuing him; nor of a boa constrictor, stretching his enormous jaws, and swallowing a tiger; for I believe that neither lions, nor giraffes, nor boa-constrictors, are found THE FOKIAN MONSTER. 287 in China: yet still, perhaps, you will hear something of which you have not heard before. It has been asserted, and I think with truth, that of no country on the globe, of equal extent, do we know so little as we do of the Celestial Empire with regard to its animal productions. In China there are elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, wild-boars, buffaloes, bears, wolves, foxes, camels, deer, goats, elks, monkeys, and other animals. It is said that "the province of Fokian hath an animal perfectly resembling a man, but longer armed and hairy all over, called fe-se, most swift and greedy after human flesh; which, that he may the better take his prey, feigneth a laughter, and suddenly, while the person stands listening, seizeth This is a tale which I by no means upon him." wish you to believe. That great ugly baboons of the Ourang Outang kind may be found in Fokian I do not doubt, but the laughing part of the story deserves to be laughed at, as well as the maneating propensity of the baboon. One of the most grotesque looking monkeys that I have ever seen is the douc, or Cochin China monkey. Its orange-coloured face, with yellow tufts of hair on each side of it, its black hands and thighs, its bright red legs and white tail, present a strange appearance. In China there are black apes, grey apes, and yellow apes, and some of them are extraordinary looking creatures. I suppose you know that the monkey has a long tail, 288 FIVE THOUSAND ELEPHANTS. the baboon a short tail, and the ape no tail at all. Lynx, leopards, and porcupines, are found in China, as well as yellow rats, field rats, cats, squirrels, hares, and rabbits; bucks and does abound in many parts, but I must now speak of the elephant. You know that this bulky and sagacious animal is used as a beast of burden in India, but this is not the case in China-I mean that this is not commonly the case. In China, Elephants are principally used to increase the pomp of imperial greatness. Something of this kind was mentioned in the account I gave you of the coronation, or rather the "ascending to the summit," of the emperor. If we go back as far as Marco Polo's description of the commemoration of the festival of the White Feast by the grand khan, we hear of a splendid account of elephants in procession. He says "It is on this day that all his elephants, amounting to five thousand, are exhibited in procession, covered with housings of cloth, fancifully and richly worked with gold and silk in figures of birds and beasts. Each of these supports upon its shoulders, two coffers filled with vessels of plate and other apparatus for the use of the court. Then follows a train of camels, in like manner laden with various necessary articles of furniture. When the whole are properly arranged, they pass in review before his Majesty, and form a pleasing spectacle." THE CHE-KIANG, OR MUSK-DEER. 289 What you think of this procession of five thousand elephants I cannot tell, but, for my own part, had Marco Polo mentioned only half the number, I should have had more faith in his veracity. Five thousand elephants! I have heard of such a thing as three score elephants being paraded round and round in procession, passing behind their stabling, and then again making their appearance, as though they were different elephants. In this manner they seemed to be an almost endless multitude. Now it is possible that the elephants described by Marco Polo moved in a circle, and thus gave rise to what seems to be an extravagant assertion. China is famous for pigs, and the black hog is very abundant. Where one joint of mutton is seen in the country, a dozen, or more joints of pork make their appearance. There is a tale abroad that the Che-kiang, or musk-deer, well known in China, lives on serpents, but I do not believe one word of it. This animal is hunted principally for the musk which it supplies. The hunter, as in chamois hunting, ascends the most dangerous and solitary altitudes he can attain, and shoots his prey, or takes him with his nets, or drives him into defiles, where other hunters lie in wait to destroy him. It is easier to imagine a son of Confucius smoking opium, carrying an umbrella, sitting at his books, or picking tea, than it is to fancy him chasing the U 290 THE BACTRIAN CAMEL. che-kiang from crag to crag, and from cliff to cliff on the cloud-capped mountains. The horses of China are, for the most part, stunted in growth and poor in condition. If ever you should find an Eclipse or a Flying Childers in the Imperial dominions, do let me see him, for hardly can I think that such an animal is to be found from Pekin to Canton. Chinese asses and mules are of a good size, especially the latter. The camel is among the useful animals of the Chinese, and few scenes are more picturesque than that of a group of camels, and their celestial drivers. The bactrian, or two-humped kind, mostly prevails. The legs of this useful animal are not so long as those of the Arabian camel, and his |