those who, during this scene of disorder, could satify the cravings of hunger! Shall I explain the weighty reason of this long detention in such abominable quarters? You must know, then, that as it is considered a favourable omen when the king kills a lion, so is the escape of that animal portentous of infinite evil to the state. Accordingly, the termination of the hunt is attended with much grave ceremony. The king being seated in the general assembly of the omrahs, the dead lion is brought before him, and when the carcase has been accurately measured, and minutely examined, it is recorded in the royal archives that such a king on such a day slew a lion of such a size and of such a skin, whose teeth were of such a length, and whose claws were of such dimensions*" We find in the annals of Hindostan that the lion was occasionally hunted without these precautions. Bernier gives us a remarkable instance. Aurengzebe, who was gratified by displays of personal courage, and who had distinguished himself when a youth by attacking an elephant single-handed †, commanded his son, Sultan Mauzum," in a full assembly of omrahs, to kill a lion which had descended from the mountains, and was then laying waste the surrounding country. The grand master of the hunt ventured to hope that Sultan Mauzum might be permitted to avail himself of those capacious nets which are ordinarily made use of in so perilous a chase. He shall attack the lion without nets,' sternly replied the king. 'When I was prince I thought not of such precautions.' An order given in so decisive a tone could not be disobeyed. The prince declined not the fearful undertaking. He encountered and overcame the tremendous beast with the loss of only two or three men; some horses were mangled, and the wounded lion bounded on the head of the Sultan's elephant *.” Marco Polo has recorded, with great minuteness, the mode of the Grand Khan's proceeding to the chase, with his ten thousand falconers, and ten thousand "tarkaol," or waiters, whose duty it was to secure the stray falcons. "On account of the narrowness of the passes in some parts of the country where his majesty follows the chase, he is borne upon two elephants only, or sometimes a single one, being more convenient than a greater number. But under other circumstances he makes use of four, upon the backs of which is placed a pavilion of wood, handsomely carved, the inside being lined with cloth of gold, and the outside covered with the skins of lionsa mode of conveyance which is rendered necessary to him during his hunting excursions, in consequence of the gout with which his majesty is troubled. In the pavilion he always carries with him twelve of his best gerfalcons, with twelve officers, from amongst his favourites, to bear him company and amuse him. Those who are on horseback by his side give him notice of the approach of cranes, or other birds, upon which he raises the curtain of the pavilion, and when he espies the game, gives direction for letting fly the gerfalcons, which seize the cranes and overpower them after a long struggle. The view of this sport, as he lies upon his couch, affords extreme satisfaction to his majesty." It would be difficult to imagine a more absurd attitude of despotism, than is here described, a whole district thrown into confusion, useful labours suspended, private property violated by thousands of armed hunters, and the entire population subjected to odious restraints, that a gouty Travels, vol. i. p. 204. man may look out of his pavilion, borne upon the backs of four elephants, to see a gerfalcon destroy a crane. The magnificent hunting expeditions of the Indian princes, which had all the parade and much of the excitement of war, were continued almost to our own times. The Nawaub of Oude, Vizier Ally, or Asophul-Doulah, who was raised to the throne by the assistance of the British government, (he died in 1818,) was a prince of the most profuse expenditure; and his sports were conducted upon a scale that approached even to the splendours of Kublai Khan or Aurengzebe. He generally took the field in the month of March, accompanied by ten thousand cavalry and as many infantry, and from seven to eight hundred elephants. From forty to sixty thousand people followed the camp, with grain and merchandise. When the Vizier set out from his palace at Lucknow, a line was formed with the prince in the centre, mounted on an elephant, with two attendant elephants, one carrying his state howdah, the other his sporting howdah. A line of elephants was prolonged on each side the prince, and was flanked at each extremity by the cavalry. The immense cavalcade proceeded straight through the country, regardless of the mischief that was a necessary consequence, the poor cultivators running after the Vizier, crying aloud for mercy. When any game was started, a continued fire was kept up along the line; and if a herd of antelopes was discovered, the elephants halted, and the cavalry hemmed them in, that his highness and his courtiers might leisurely destroy them. Proceeding in this manner by day, and halting in the evening at appointed stations, where every luxury was prepared in sumptuous tents, the army at length approached the Thibet mountains, where tigers, panthers, leopards, and buffaloes were to be found. An encampment being formed, their sporting was conducted for several weeks upon a grand and formidable scale; and, mounted upon their elephants, the prince and his nobles scoured the country in pursuit of the ferocious beasts that destroyed the flocks and herds of the peasantry. The array of despotism was here of some service; for the number of carnivorous animals that were killed was generally in proportion to the magnitude of the force employed against them *. Such scenes as this, however, belong to another age and system of government than now prevails in British India. The gorgeous power of the native chiefs is gradually vanishing before the quiet strength of European conquest and civilization; and the destruction of the tiger and the leopard is left to such individuals as seek the danger for its excitement, or to the hunter by profession, who perils his life for a small reward. Although the elephant is not a native of Persia, at -the present day, there is tolerable evidence that he was once employed in that country both in war and the chase. On an ancient arch, described by Sir R. K. Porter, are representations in bas-relief, of a boarhunt, in which some of the riders are mounted on horses, and others on elephants, which are plunging on every side through the marshy bushes. The elephant is invariably employed in India in hunting the tiger. His delicate scent, his strength to make his way through the thickest covers, his sagacity, and especially his great stature, by which the hunter is lifted out of danger, render him peculiarly -fitted for such a work. Horses cannot be brought to follow the track of a tiger; and camels are unable to defend themselves if attacked by the ferocious For a minute description of the huntings of Vizier Ally, see Johnson's Indian Field Sports, chap. ix. |