FOOTNOTES:
[644] “Now I shall tell yow verray true medecynes for to mewe an hawke hastyly that ye shall beleue for trowthe and ye Will assay them. Ther be in Woddys or in hedgis Wormys calde edders that ben Redde of nature. and he is calde vepa. and also ther be snakys of the same kynde. and they be verri bitter. Take ii or iii of them and smyte of their hedes and thendys of theyr taylis. Then take a new erthen pot: that Was neuer used. and cut hem ito small gobettys * * *.”—Boke of St. Albans.
[645] Hudhud, the “Bird of Solomon” is the hoopoe, and not the lapwing as supposed by some translators of the Qurān.
[646] G͟hadūd or qadūd; found in the neck of animals.
[647] According to the old-fashioned theory of medicine, derived from the Greeks, hornets are “hot.” In India wasp-grubs are cooked in butter with spices, and the butter is then spread on the meat.
[648] i.e., grind by rubbing on a stone as Indians do curry spices.
[649] During the Indian hot weather, a fat hawk will sometimes start moulting, if merely reduced in condition.
CHAPTER XLI
ON FEEDING ON JERBOAS DURING THE MOULT
You must know that during the moult there is no food so good, for both short-winged and long-winged hawks, as the flesh of the two-legged rat, called by the Arabs jarbūʿ[651] (jerboa). In the absence of these rats you must catch house-mice.[652]
Let your hawk eat her fill of the antelope-rat,
For where is the food that is better than that?
The flesh is particularly good about two or three months before Autumn,[653] that is, when your hawks are half-moulted, having three to four flight-feathers of each wing uncast. At this season the jerboa is very fat, and hawks find its flesh palatable.
The properties of the jerboa’s flesh are:—First: it keeps your hawks in perfect health; for, though the weather is hot, the flesh of the jerboa is cold. Rip open the belly of one newly killed and put your fingers inside; you will find that, unlike all other beasts and birds, which, when newly killed, are hot inside, the jerboa is cold. Second: every feather of your hawk that draws its nourishment from the flesh of the jerboa will be strong and pliant, and will last till the next moult without fear of breaking; for such feathers have the pliability of a spring. I say this from experience; for I once saw a gazelle, when the bālābān bound to its head, trip and fall, and roll over and over with the hawk for twenty or thirty paces. The hawk’s wing- and tail-feathers were badly bent and bruised.[654] However, I restored them all with the help of warm water; not one was broken. Third: the fur makes your hawk cast twice daily. (If you can feed your hawk twice daily, morning and afternoon, on the jerboa with its fur, so much the better; if not, feed her on this flesh once, in the afternoon). Fourth: at the end of the moult there is a very fine and powdery bloom on the feathers; it is as though a delicate powder had been sprinkled on them. Fifth: it is an excellent tonic for a sick hawk, as, please God, I will explain later on.