CHAPTER X
THE LAMMERGEYER OR BEARDED VULTURE

[The description of the Bearded Vulture[112] as given by the author is sufficiently accurate for identification. He, however, adorns it with “two horns or ears like those of the horned owls.” He then continues:]—

The Lammergeyer is noted for its wondrous powers of flight. It soars aloft, bearing with ease a bone as large as the bleached thigh-bone of a donkey. This it drops on a rock, and then descends to eat the shattered fragments.[113] The Poet has said of it:—

“The Humā o’er other birds has flown

Because its food is only bone.”[114]

Popular Superstition.—It is a popular superstition that any one wilfully slaying a Lammergeyer will meet his death within forty days. Once, when out hawking, I saw one of these fateful birds seated on a stone a short distance from me. With me was a servant, a sturdy villain fearing nothing. Gun in hand he approached the Lammergeyer, bent on slaughter. Do all I could, I failed to dissuade him. I told him the popular superstition, but he laughed and said, “Oh! that’s an old woman’s story.” Heedless of my advice he shot the Lammergeyer, and died himself on the fortieth day. This is a fact: I myself was an eye-witness. Was his death a mere coincidence, or is there truth in the vulgar belief? God knows.

Taking a Lammergeyer with a Chark͟h.—I was once hawking in Sulaymānīya Shahrzūr[115] and saw what I took to be an eagle,[116] seated on a stone some little way off. I had with me a very fine chark͟h[117] trained to eagles.[118] To unhood and cast it off was the work of a moment, and it was not till I had actually secured the quarry, that I discovered it was no eagle but a Lammergeyer. I recollected the fate of my servant, and hastily released it. [By a play on the words humā and humāyūn, the author here pays the Shāh a flowery and far-fetched compliment, difficult to render in English. He pretends that the popular belief mentioned in the first note on the previous page was certainly fulfilled in his case, since the King of Kings had always distinguished him by his especial friendship and bounty, and thus raised him to the dignity of ordinary kingship. He adds:]—

Through the lucky shadow of the Humā’s wing

Am I thus highly honoured by the King.

Honoured of him, Lord of my fate I stand,