FOOTNOTES:
[791] Tukma or dukma or dugma, T., “a button.”
[792] Mis̤l-i nāvdān durust kun; meaning not clear.
CHAPTER LXVIII
A HAWK NOT TO BE FED WHEN “BLOWN”
If your hawk has worked hard and taken her quarry and you come up and see that she is blown, that her beak is open and her wings are loose, on no account feed her up, or you will make her ill; or else she will not fly with zest for three or four days. Now the reason is this: from the violence of her exertions the blood and fat in her body have become mixed, and her quarry too, owing to its fear, has exerted its utmost efforts to escape, and in this state you kill it and feed her on it. Now Ḥāris̤ bin Kilda, one of the most noted physicians in the time of the Lord of the Prophets[793] (God’s peace on Him and his Family) said to Nūshīravān the Just, “Eat not when thou art in a state of excitement”; and this maxim appears to be applicable to all living things. Therefore cut the quarry’s throat—letting your falcon see you do it—and hood her on her quarry, and remove her. “Carry” her for at least half an hour[794] till she has roused twice or thrice and her beak is closed, and she has collected and crossed her wings, and regained her wind. Then remove her hood close to her quarry and feed her upon it.
With goshawks, however, and with merlins, too, flown at larks, cut the throat of the quarry and let the hawk “plume”[795] it thoroughly and then eat. As a goshawk has no hood, you cannot treat her as just described for a falcon.
The reason that hawks in a wild state keep in health is, that after taking the quarry, they are forced to wait till they have “plumed” it before eating it; for this is Nature’s law. Do thou likewise follow Nature.
Since the revolving skies, the changing moons,
The daily sunshine, all are Nature’s boons,
Show her perfections, and her charms display,
Gaze carefully, my son, and learn her way.
Before you go out hawking, see, before you mount, that you have with you various bird-catching apparatus, such as a sparrow-net, a sparrow-hawk net, and a du-gaza; for out hawking you will frequently come across a goshawk, or a sparrow-hawk, or a saker; if you have the necessary apparatus and can prove your skill by catching one of these, just see what pleasure it will give you.[796] I once was flying a favourite passage-saker at a heron, and the falcon had rung up into mid-heaven and was on the point of taking the quarry, when suddenly an eagle[797] appeared and seized my falcon in mid-air and slew her. I and my men galloped after the brute to rescue the falcon, but she was dead. The bastard that had made my liver into roast meat[798] went and settled on a rock, but I had with me only a sparrow-hawk net, and with a sparrow-hawk net it is not possible to catch an eagle; for an eagle will not come to a sparrow-hawk net, or a sparrow-net[799]—or if it does come, it carries it away. I suddenly spied a kestril perched on a stone, and set up my sparrow-hawk du-gaza[799] in front of it. The poor bird, through vain greed, fell into the snare and into my clutches. I pulled a few hairs out of my horse’s tail and made four or five strong nooses, and I skinned the sparrow.[800] I tied the feathers into the kestril’s claws and concealed the nooses amongst the feathers. I then half-seeled the kestril’s eyes and cast it into the air, but the murderous eagle was not attracted; it ignored the kestril. Suddenly a buzzard (sār) appeared, and, stooping at the feathers in the kestril’s claws, got entangled in the nooses. Both birds fell to the ground. I galloped and secured the buzzard. Adding to the feathers, and strengthening the nooses, I half-seeled the buzzard’s eyes and treated it as I had treated the kestril. The buzzard rose in the air; the eagle saw it, and rose after it to rob from it those tempting feathers; little it dreamt that the hunter would be hunted. It rose and made a glorious stoop; then, its fingers inside those nooses, it fell to earth along with the buzzard. I murdered the murderer and rejoiced. So great was my exultation you might almost have fancied my falcon had not been slain. Now, you see you should always have with you complete apparatus for all kinds of sport and fowling, even to fishing tackle, for each sport has its own peculiar delight.
Should an eagle slay and devour your hawk before your eyes and then clean its talons in the ground, and should you, having with you a chark͟h trained to eagles, cast it at the eagle and take it, and then execute various mutilating punishments[801] on it—why, what delight can equal this?