[485] From behind.
[486] The distance is probably exaggerated.
[487] Pidar-sag, a common term of abuse: used in much the same way that b——y is by Thomas Atkins.
[488] T̤uʿma-zada mī-shavad: does this simply mean indigestion or does it mean that the hawk will cast her gorge?
CHAPTER XXXIV
EYESS SAKER AND GAZELLE[491]
The system of training the nestling chark͟h[492] to gazelle differs from that previously described for the passage saker.[493]
In the beginning of the Autumn you must, with your eyess, take a large number of hubara bustard so that she may become adroit and lose her rawness. As your hawk is a nestling and hence without any experience whatever, you must, after getting her to kill one or two domestic fowls, enter her by a train of a live hubara.[494]
You must first seel the hubara’s eyes, so that it may not puff itself up and drive away the young hawk,[495] which might thereafter conceive a permanent dread of this quarry. “Seel” the eyes of the train and let it run[496] for about forty paces, and then cast off your chark͟h. She will approach it stealthily[497] and seize it. As soon as she seizes it, give her a small quantity of meat; remove her and rehood her.
In the evening slightly loosen the thread with which the hubara’s eyes are seeled, so that it can just see out of the top of its eyes.[498] When the chark͟h flies towards the hubara, the latter, spying her out of the tops of its eyes, will puff itself out for the attack; but when the hawk arrives close and drops to the ground, she will no longer be visible, and the hubara will therefore not charge her. When the hawk seizes the hubara, again give her a small quantity of meat.
On the next day unseel half of the hubara’s eyes, so that at one time it may puff itself out ready for attack, and at another lose sight of its enemy. Let the hubara get some distance, and then unhood the hawk and let her go. As soon as she binds to the hubara, cut its throat and feed up the hawk.