DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN
have smooth-haired tails; only two (on the bas-reliefs of the Hsiao T'ang Shan) are represented with bushy tails, the hair being drawn in an ornamental and much exaggerated manner on the lower side of them."[1]
Turning now to fowling, Laufer is of opinion that Chinese culture in hawking has been derived from Turkish tribes. He states that Schrader,[2] from a study of the history of falconry in ancient Europe, has demonstrated that Turkistan must be considered to be the mother-country of falconry, whence it was carried to the Occident during the first invasions in the Migration of Peoples. "The whole method of hawk-training, as laid down in detail in the Chinese and Japanese falconers' books, coincides in such a striking manner with the same practice followed in Europe, and also by the Persians and Arabs, that it must needs be attributed to a common source of origin.[3] To mention only one of many instances: the hood, a leather cap for blindfolding hawks in order to tame them, was unknown to European falconers before the Crusades. It was introduced by the German Emperor Frederick II, who adopted it from the Syrian Arabs.[4] The use of the hood has been well known to Chinese falconers since times of old, and is still prevalent in China. The origin (of falconry) can be sought only in the vast steppes of Central Asia and in the culture of the ancient Turks."[5]
This statement is based upon discoveries of silver objects in Siberia, upon which falconry and the use of hunting-birds are represented, believed to date from as early as the later iron period. Klementz made a find of a wall-painting
- ↑ "Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty," Laufer, p. 272.
- ↑ Schrader, "Reallexicon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde" (Strassburg, 1901), p. 211.
- ↑ For an account of the modern use of hawks in Japan see "Japan Day by Day," by Ed. S. Morse, vol. ii, p. 381 et seq.
- ↑ "De Arte Venandi cum Avibus," 1245.
- ↑ Laufer, "Chinese Pottery of the Han Dynasty," p. 231.
