[82] Rasānīdan, “to train.”
[83] Pācha-band. “Jesses, the short narrow straps of leather fastened round a hawk’s legs to hold her by.”—Harting. The jesses are never removed from the hawk’s legs. In the East the jesses are frequently made of woven silk or cotton, with small rings or “varvels” attached to their ends: with the short-winged hawks, the use of leather jesses is the exception. The “leash” is a long narrow thong (or in the East a silk or cotton cord) that is attached to the end of the “jesses” by means of a swivel, or otherwise, and is used for tying up a hawk to a perch or block. Vide also page 78, note [315].
[84] Qātima, a word used by the E. Turks and Kurds for a rope of goat hair. In India gut, or the sinews of cranes, are used for binding lures, etc.
[85] Qadam; a short pace of about twenty inches.
[86] Ẕiraʿ. “Three ẕiraʿ long, by five or six ẕiraʿ broad.” The Persian ẕiraʿ is variously stated to be a measure of forty, and forty-two inches in length.
[87] Du-gaza; a light, large-meshed net, six feet or more long, by four and a half feet or more broad, and suspended between two light bamboos or sticks, which are shod with iron spikes. This net is planted upright, twenty yards or more away from a resting hawk, while a live bird is pegged down in the centre of the net, a few feet from it, and on the side opposite to the hawk. A certain amount of spare net is gathered towards its centre and allowed to rest loose on the ground. The hawk makes straight for the fluttering bait, through the invisible net; the loose portion on the ground permits the net to “belly” like a sail, while the shock given causes the light uprights to collapse inwards, thus effectually enveloping the hawk.
[88] Presumably the length of these poles should be somewhat less than the breadth of the net.
[89] “One and a half ẕiraʿ.” The old English name for hawk-catching nets was “urines” or “uraynes.”
[90] Perhaps it can be kept in higher condition.
[91] It must not be supposed from this description that hawk-catching is by any means an easy business. In India, in the course of two or three weeks, the fowler may not catch more than three hawks worth keeping, and that, too, at the season the birds are migrating into the country.