FOOTNOTES:
[666] Qūsh: a term applied to any large bird of prey, and especially to the goshawk.
[667] This disease is “the frounce i the mouth” of old English falconers. It is said to resemble thrush in children and to proceed from damp. The Boke of St. Albans tells us that “The frounce commyth when a man fedith his hawke withe porke or cattis flesh iiij days to geyder.” In India this disease, though not uncommon amongst the short-winged hawks, does not seem to attack the long-winged hawks. I have never seen or heard of any falcon being afflicted with it. Bert, however (page 82, Harting’s edition), says that the long-winged hawk is more susceptible to it than the short-winged.
[668] Ḥawṣala, “crop.”
[669] Jarāḥat, “wound,” in m.c. is “pus, or matter from an open wound”: mādda is pus inside a swelling before it is opened.
[670] Jigar-i safīd, “white liver,” i.e., “the lungs, the lights.”
CHAPTER XLV
DISEASES OF THE NOSE
Should your hawk be unable to “tire” with force, and should she draw her breath with difficulty and her crop become filled with air, it is a sign that the air passages of her nostrils are blocked. Treatment: for one or two days, give her, as “tiring” and food, the tough thigh of a fowl; for the exertion of pulling at this will induce a flow of water from her nostrils. Should this fail, pound some sneeze-wort[671] very fine, and put it in a fine reed; place one end of the reed on the hawk’s nostril, and blow into the reed so that the powder enters the nostril. After a few sneezes, there should be a flow of water from the nostrils, and the ailment should disappear. Item: mix the juice of coriander seed with the juice of a turnip-radish, and drop this into her nostrils, and she will be cured. Item: with a stick of log-wood, brand her skull from the base of the yellow cere of her beak, upwards, for a length of three barley-corns: if the brand be longer than three barley-corns, it will reach the brain-pan and be injurious. This is a last resort; for, as the Arab proverb has it, “The last of remedies is the cautery.”
CHAPTER XLVI
ON DISEASES OF THE EAR
Should your hawk get a swelling on the ear, which afterwards produces pus, the chances are that she will become deaf: if this disease does nothing more, it will at least render her useless for sport. This ailment is found in the long-winged, rarely in the short-winged, hawks, for it arises from an ill-fitting hood; that is to say, a hawk is fitted with a hood too large for her, which she consequently casts repeatedly; the irritated falconer then ties a knot in the strap, and this knot, pressing on the ear, results in a wound[672] which refuses to heal. For this there is no cure.
I once had an excellent gazelle-saker that became afflicted with this disease. In spite of this ailment, however, she used to take daily, one, or two, or three gazelle. I treated her for two years without effect, and she then died.
If the falconer detects the injury in its initial stage and applies two leeches to the swelling, a cure may be effected. If not, no further treatment will avail. You will now understand why I cautioned you, in a previous chapter, against putting a new hood on a newly caught falcon, or on a falcon just taken up from the moult. Let the hood be soft and part-worn, and of a size that fits the head.