Fichier:Kircher - China illustrata - French - 00320.jpg

English: Page. 262 of the French translation of Athanasius Kircher's China illsutrata. Includes the picture of the Sumxu animal (based on Sumxu, i.e. squirrel in Boym's Flora Sinensis). The animal is labeled in Latin letters, Feki; it is not clear to the uploader what this word means. Below, there are corrupted Chinese characters; these are a corruption of the 松鼠 (songshu, i.e. "squirrel"), which was the caption in the earlier picture of the same creature by Michael Boym.

A monkey sits in the back of the room, and a hunter with four dogs (or sumxu?) chases a dear outside.

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etched Work of Wenceslaus Hollar, 1607-1677 by Richard Pennington describes this image (or, more likely, its copy made by Wenceslaus Hollar in England) under no. 2117, and calls the animal (as well as the four with the hunter, outside), "Chinese badger".

The text on this page (not directly related to the picture) discusses monkeys taking court duties in an Indian royal court.

The text on the preceding page concerning the "sumxu" has been translated into English like this: "There is also a domestic animal called the Sumxu which is similar to a cat. It is black and saffron colored and has splendid hair. The Chinese tame it and put a silver collar around its neck. It is an avid hunter of mice. It is so rare that one sells for seven to nine scudi." (Page 186, in a modern English translation by Dr. Charles D. Van Tuyl)