To train the bālābān to heron, she must first be trained, as already described, to a lure[581] made of the wings of a common crane.
When she knows the lure well, get a live chicken and tie it by the leg to the lure, with a string about twenty inches long. Lure the hawk from a long distance, casting into the air, two or three times, the lure garnished with the chicken, so that the hawk may come with force and eagerness and seize the chicken. Cut the chicken’s throat and feed up the hawk. Let her kill two or three fowls in this manner, so that she may come with eagerness to the lure.
Now go out into the open country and find a night-heron,[582] get close to it and cast off your hawk at it. * * *.[583]
If you find a night-heron on the edge of a small stream, cast off your hawk, and should she take it, feed her up.[584] If, however, she will not fly it, you must take one with a shahin or with a goshawk and in the morning give it to her alive as a flying train: if she will not take it, bind a little meat on its back. Fly her at this same “train” again in the evening. When she will readily take the “train,” you must fly her at one or two wild night-herons and at one or two purple herons. * * *.[585]
Now procure a bagged common heron[586] and on its broad yār māliq[587] feathers tie a piece of meat very firmly so that there is no possible chance of your hawk being able to disengage it and go off with it. Hold the heron by one wing, and get your assistant to stand some distance off with the hawk. When the bālābān binds to the meat, let her pull and eat a little: then remove her. You must now seel the heron’s eyes so that it may not suddenly ring up[588]—better still, bind two or three of its flight-feathers together so that it may run on the ground and extend its wings.[589] As soon as the hawk takes the train feed her up.
On the morrow, again tie meat on to the heron’s back, but unbind the flight-feathers so that it may fly well. Release the heron, and when it has flown ten or twelve paces unhood and cast off your hawk. As soon as she takes it, give her only a little meat and fly her again in the evening in the same way. Do this for several days, gradually reducing the quantity of meat on the heron’s back.[590] As soon as your hawk flies the heron in style, seizing it by the neck without regarding the meat, cut the heron’s throat and feed her up.[591] Next day procure a fresh heron but tie no meat on its back. Let it fly, and when it has flown a good distance unhood and cast off your hawk. When she takes the heron, feed her up. Withdraw the dead heron from her grasp and cast it to a distance of ten or twelve yards that she may know that that is her dead quarry;[592] then let her go and settle on it and take two or three beakfuls. Again withdraw and cast the dead heron to a little distance, but do not let the hawk go: let her “bate” towards it once or twice and then hood her. Wash off any blood spots and clean the “nares”.[593]
Now procure another heron, one strong of flight, that will ring up. Get an assistant to mount some high place—a place about a hundred ell high[594]—and release the heron. You must be mounted, and, hawk on fist, take stand below this spot. Remove the hood of the hawk and let her discover the heron above her. She will have to exert herself to get above it, and if, after getting above it, she makes two or three stoops at it[595] before binding, what better? Feed her up.
Next day, go and find a wild heron in an easy and suitable spot, but have with you as a “make-hawk”[596] a bālābān that is fully trained to this flight. First cast off your young hawk. She will, of course, make four or five stoops at the heron, but should the heron commence to “ring” and the hawk show signs of slackening, then at once cast off the “make-hawk,” so that the jealousy of the young hawk may be excited and they may together take the quarry. Feed up the young hawk well, so that you may give her washed meat[597] the day following.
As long as your hawk, while ringing up with the heron, keeps beating[598] her wings quickly, it is a sign that she is trying to get above it; but the moment she ceases to beat, and begins to sail,[599] she has given up. In this case, at once call her down to the lure of crane’s wings, and as soon as she comes reward her by killing, under the lure, either a chicken or a pigeon, feeding her up well; for in the opinion of falconers this dropping from a height to the lure is better than taking ten herons: she is now your property; up till now she has been merely a loan.
Next day[600] go and find a heron in an easy place, and first cast off your young hawk at it. As soon as she has made one or two stoops, cast off the “make-hawk” (before the heron commences to ring) so that they may stoop at it alternately and the two may take it together.