FOOTNOTES:
[775] During a Panjab winter, if a hawk falls into water, even late in the evening, she will suffer no harm if fed up on warm flesh—provided, of course, she is in proper flying condition and not too thin. The cold in Persia, however, can be intense, while in the open desert an icy, paralysing wind often springs up and blows with such force that it is difficult to make headway against it.
[776] Ḥammām: even the villages in Persia have “Turkish baths,” which are used by all. A Persian gentleman usually has a private bath attached to his own house.
CHAPTER LXIII
EXPEDIENT IF MEAT FAIL
Should you be caught in the snow far from your stage and have no means of procuring food for your hawks—a deadly cold wind springing up in your teeth, your hawks will certainly perish, unless fed. Remedy: at once dismount and bind the forearm of your horse. With the point of your pen-knife open the vein;[777] hold a cup underneath so that the blood may collect and congeal in it; then give this blood to your hawk that she escape death.
FOOTNOTES:
[777] Blood is drawn from human beings in two ways; either from between the shoulders by the process called ḥajāmat, “cupping;” or, the arm being bound above the elbow, by opening the vein in the inside of the elbow, faṣd kardan. The latter operation is attended with some danger.
CHAPTER LXIV
RESTORATION AFTER DROWNING
Should your hawk fall into a stream and be swept away,[778] and when recovered be lifeless, the treatment, even though the hawk has been apparently dead for half an hour, is as follows. Treatment: light a fire and lay the hawk down by the side of it. Collect the hot ashes under the wings and heap ashes on the back, and as soon as the ashes cool, pile on other ashes, fresh and warm. The ashes must not be so hot as to burn the feathers. In a short time, by God’s decree, the dead hawk will come to life. This remedy is suitable for a man also, or, indeed, for any beast that has been drowned. It is efficacious even up to half or three quarters of an hour after insensibility. I have several times successfully tried this remedy on man, beast, and bird.
When a man is half-drowned, and with death is at strife,