[733] “Bating” on a hard perch during the moult when the hawk is heavy, will also cause this disease. Also a hard perch when the pressure always falls on the same spot, will produce it. Hawks moulted on sand do not suffer from it.
[734] Ḥafā, Ar., is “the sole of the foot of man or beast being chafed or worn down by travel.”
[735] i.e., dyed by indigo, which has medicinal properties.
[736] The top?
[737] Qū, and colloquially in Turkish qāv, “touch wood.” Yābis mis̤lu ’l-qāv, “dry as touch wood,” is a common Arab saying in Baghdad.
[738] Qalam, the “stalke” of old English falconers.
[739] Mūmiyā, “mummy,” is a name in Eastern bazaars now applied to several forms of asphalte, mineral pitch, Jew’s pitch, and maltha. Formerly the name was applied to Egyptian mummy; and by the vulgar at the present day this mysterious medicine is supposed to be the extract of negro-boy boiled in oil. “Mummy-oil” is made by mixing equal parts of mummy and clarified butter over the fire.
[740] Ordinary poultices or repeated fomentations will produce the same result.
[741] An Indian remedy, whether good or ill, I cannot say, is to keep the hawk on a lump of rock salt instead of on a perch: vide page 175, note [747].
[742] In India a sparrow-hawk’s perch is usually a wooden peg driven into the mud wall of the living-room.