Suddenly a huge carrion vulture[250] dropped to earth and settled before us. I told my attendants to stop still while I circumvented it by the Arab method. I made a circuit and got up-wind of it, and assisted the wind in covering it with sand and dust. At last I reached the vulture and saw that the poor thing had tucked away its head, and was to all appearance asleep. I cast myself on it and secured it, and saw that its eyes and nostrils were so choked with sand that it could scarcely breathe. I made the Ābdār[251] carry it till we reached the shrine. Not having enough food for the hawks, I bought a fat young sucking-lamb,[252] and killed it. The liver and heart were given to the vulture, which, when the wind subsided, was duly released.
I could have captured gazelle by the same method had it not been for their sense of smell.
FOOTNOTES:
[240] An Afghan acquaintance told the translator that he had seen demoiselle cranes (k͟har-k͟hare) caught in the following manner at Kabul. Small boys were buried in the sand at intervals, their noses above ground and their arms extended—the arms carefully covered with sand and shingle. The unsuspecting cranes were then slowly driven towards the hidden children. Sometimes two or three birds are caught in this manner. The children are buried on the spot where the cranes rest at night. In Chitral, goshawks are said to be caught by the following device: The top of a bare hillock is selected, scooped out and roofed over, the chamber thus made being sufficiently large to conceal a man. The trapper enters the chamber from the side, and closes the entrance. He then puts through a hole in the roof a live chukor fitted with jesses, and with a leash five or six feet long. The hole in the roof is closed, and the partridge flutters at the extent of its leash. When the goshawk appears, the cries of the chukor warn the trapper. When the goshawk seizes the partridge, it is slowly drawn towards the hole by the trapper. The hawk, feeling resistance, only “binds” the tighter, till it is suddenly seized by the legs from within the hut. The chief places for catching goshawks near Chitral are said to be the Singūr forest; the Bakamak hill; the Makhtāmābād hill; and the Urgutch hill. These are the four Mihtarī places, i.e., hawks caught there are the property of the Mihtar.
[241] A common exclamation amongst Muslims; used in time of danger, on hearing of an accident, and on seeing one afflicted with a horrible disease such as leprosy.
[242] Shin va māssa.
[243] Salmān-i Fārsī was a Persian of Abyssinian extraction. He was one of the “Companions of the Prophet.” His tomb, on a bank of the Tigris, not far from Baghdad, is close to the old ruined palace of Kisra, called by the Arabs Tāq-Kisrạ “The arch of Cyrus.” Here, too, is the site of Madāʿin or “The cities,” the capital of Persia at the time of the Muslim conquest. Seven cities are said to have existed on this site, T̤aysafūn or Ctsesiphon being one of them. It was in the latter that the Tāq-Kisrạ existed, built, according to some accounts, by Nūshīravān the Just.
[244] A farsak͟h is about 3¾ miles.
[245] “Mine,” an Arab idiom for any place where the game is found in abundance.
[246] ʿArsh-i Sulaymān. The winds were subject to Solomon. His throne was placed on an immense carpet of green silk, and his forces, men on the right, jinn on the left, took their stand upon it, and the wind bore it aloft under Solomon’s orders, while the army of birds formed a canopy above.