FOOTNOTES:
[240] An Afghan acquaintance told the translator that he had seen demoiselle cranes (k͟har-k͟hare) caught in the following manner at Kabul. Small boys were buried in the sand at intervals, their noses above ground and their arms extended—the arms carefully covered with sand and shingle. The unsuspecting cranes were then slowly driven towards the hidden children. Sometimes two or three birds are caught in this manner. The children are buried on the spot where the cranes rest at night. In Chitral, goshawks are said to be caught by the following device: The top of a bare hillock is selected, scooped out and roofed over, the chamber thus made being sufficiently large to conceal a man. The trapper enters the chamber from the side, and closes the entrance. He then puts through a hole in the roof a live chukor fitted with jesses, and with a leash five or six feet long. The hole in the roof is closed, and the partridge flutters at the extent of its leash. When the goshawk appears, the cries of the chukor warn the trapper. When the goshawk seizes the partridge, it is slowly drawn towards the hole by the trapper. The hawk, feeling resistance, only “binds” the tighter, till it is suddenly seized by the legs from within the hut. The chief places for catching goshawks near Chitral are said to be the Singūr forest; the Bakamak hill; the Makhtāmābād hill; and the Urgutch hill. These are the four Mihtarī places, i.e., hawks caught there are the property of the Mihtar.
[241] A common exclamation amongst Muslims; used in time of danger, on hearing of an accident, and on seeing one afflicted with a horrible disease such as leprosy.
[242] Shin va māssa.
[243] Salmān-i Fārsī was a Persian of Abyssinian extraction. He was one of the “Companions of the Prophet.” His tomb, on a bank of the Tigris, not far from Baghdad, is close to the old ruined palace of Kisra, called by the Arabs Tāq-Kisrạ “The arch of Cyrus.” Here, too, is the site of Madāʿin or “The cities,” the capital of Persia at the time of the Muslim conquest. Seven cities are said to have existed on this site, T̤aysafūn or Ctsesiphon being one of them. It was in the latter that the Tāq-Kisrạ existed, built, according to some accounts, by Nūshīravān the Just.
[244] A farsak͟h is about 3¾ miles.
[245] “Mine,” an Arab idiom for any place where the game is found in abundance.
[246] ʿArsh-i Sulaymān. The winds were subject to Solomon. His throne was placed on an immense carpet of green silk, and his forces, men on the right, jinn on the left, took their stand upon it, and the wind bore it aloft under Solomon’s orders, while the army of birds formed a canopy above.
[247] Qapāncha kardan, “to mail” a hawk, i.e., to wrap it up in a “sock” or cloth, so that it is in a kind of strait-jacket. Even on foot it is impossible to carry hawks in a strong desert wind.
[248] Ḥawr is low-lying ground or dried marsh land that is full of grass and reeds. Saʿda is an adjective from the grass saʿd-i kūfī mentioned later.
[249] Saʿd-i kūfī is a tall sweet-smelling grass used in medicine. The scientific name is said to be Cyperus Scariosus. The Hindi name is, I think, nāgar moth.
“The dale
Was seen far inland and the yellow down
Border’d with palm, and many a winding vale
And meadow, set with slender galingale.”
—Lotus Eaters.
[250] Dāl-i murdār-k͟hwār.
[251] Abdār, a servant in charge of the drinks, tea-things, etc. He would of course be mounted, probably on a mule.
[252] Barra-yi shīr-mast.
CHAPTER XXII
THE MERLIN
This little falcon is beyond all praise. There are three varieties, the dark, the light, and the yellow, the first being the best. No Persian falconer has yet found the nest of the merlin, nor is it known in what country it breeds. All I know is that, about two months after the beginning of Autumn, it is spread over the face of the land, and is then caught in nets by the bird-catchers.
Like the bālābān there are three kinds, the Ḥurr Ṣāfī, the Aḥmar Shāmī,[253] and the Lafīf. The dark variety, which is the Lafīf and has cheek-stripes,[254] is better than the Ḥurr Ṣāfī. Unlike the Saker, this falcon is somewhat forgetful by nature.
If you want to train a “cast”[255] of merlins to fly larks,[256] train them quickly, luring them three times or four times a day to a lure made of pigeons’ wings.[257] Now get a live lark, and for three days,—after the merlin has been made hot and excited by being called to the lure—tie the lark to the end of a long stick, and fly the hawk at that, making it stoop four or five times.[258] Then let the hawk take, and eat half of the lark. Do this three times a day, flying it after it has digested its meal.[259]
After the merlins are well entered to the lark at the end of the stick,[260] go out into the open country. Show them, by hand, a good lark, unruffled and strong on the wing; then let it fly, casting off both merlins after it.[261] They will stoop at it and take it. When they do, feed them up together. Do this for three or four days.
Now go into the open country and fly them at a wild lark, choosing some spot free from wells or gardens: for, if your hawk chases a lark into a well, it will probably get destroyed; if it chases it into a garden, it will not only lose the lark, but lose itself. You require a clear open plain.
The quicker you train these little falcons the better, but with other hawks the contrary holds good: in training the latter, use deliberation.
Method of Snaring Larks.—I am certain the reader has been saying to himself, “Where am I to get all these live larks? Surely the author is wrong somewhere.” No, my friend, it is you that are wrong. Now listen to me while I tell you how to snare larks.
Get a long, light pole,[262] about eleven feet long, and bind to the end of it, a horse-hair noose[263] (of white horse-hair for choice) made of a single hair, and use white thread for the binding.[264] As soon as your merlin is keen on the lure, go out into the open country with an assistant. When you come across a lark, give the merlin to your assistant, and then move aside ten or fifteen paces. Now, alongside of the lark, lure the merlin to your fist. As soon as the lark spies the hawk, it will crouch on the ground, its eyes glued on the hawk. Now hand over the hawk to your assistant. Make him hold his hand high, and by lowering it and raising it cause the hawk to extend and flutter its wings, so that the attention of the lark may remain engrossed on it. Tell your man to go to the left of the lark and to stand about ten paces from it, making the hawk flutter all the time. Do you go to its right, and, advancing very slowly, extend the pole, slip the horse-hair noose on to the poor lark’s neck, and draw it to you, and—there is your “train.” This device is the invention of your humble servant. It is most successful in the Autumn and Winter months.
A lark, before a cast of merlins, gives a very pretty ringing flight. In the Spring, however, and even on warm days in the Winter,[265] they will not ring up.
A very good female merlin will take “chukor,” “seesee,”[266] quail, woodcock,[267] and other small quarry.
Defect of Merlins.—Merlins are inveterate “carriers,”[268] a great defect in their character, and should therefore be flown as a “cast,” and not singly. Another defect is that, if allowed to get very hungry, they begin to tear their own feet; and if the falconer be inattentive, they will tear away the flesh till they reach the shank bone.[269] Once they learn this vice, the only remedy is to give them their freedom. The falconer must therefore be careful to keep them always in high condition, for otherwise they will not only not “ring up” well, but will also contract the vice just mentioned.
A good, young, merlin may be kept and moulted, but just as is the case of a young passage saker and an “intermewed”[270] one, an intermewed[271] merlin will not ring up as well as a young passage hawk. The young hawk is light in body, and ignorant as well; but after the moult it becomes not only heavy, but cunning also, and will give up the moment it sees that the lark it is chasing is very strong on the wing. A “haggard” bālābān,[272] however, will, in the hands of a skilful falconer, ring up better than a young passage bālābān.
There are two varieties of merlin. In one variety the immature and mature plumage are, even after many moults, the same. In the other, the plumage of the back, after the first moult, becomes blue-grey, while the cere and legs become bright yellow like amber. I have never been able to discriminate which kind it is that will remain the same, and which kind will assume the blue plumage and yellow cere.