How can He be, in granting sport, unkind
If thou hold fast this fact within thy mind?
Fourth; if you lose your hawk and despair of its recovery, then with earnest sincerity repeat three times the Nād-i ʿAlī,[308] each time exhaling the breath towards the direction you imagine the hawk to be, and saying, “O God! by virtue of these words I adjure Thee to restore to me my lost hawk.” There is no doubt but that you will recover her instantly. This is my belief and my practice, and I have now in my possession two or three passage sakers seventeen or eighteen years of age. My son, these are my counsels: give ear to them, and bear them in your mind, and you will experience no ill.
FOOTNOTES:
[304] These remarks are presumably meant to apply only to hawks in captivity.
[305] Rudāfạ is the plural of radīf. In the text, here and elsewhere, the word is given as radāni, but as this is no correct Arabic “form,” it is probably a copyist’s error for rudāfạ. Vide also note [206], page 52.
[306] The author frequently uses the phrase māya dāshtan to indicate the advantage a hawk has when flying downwards from a height, as from the fist of a mounted man, etc. Chukor in the hills, and, I think, pheasants too, go down-hill when a hawk is after them. At any rate they are beaten for and flown at down-hill, the falconer taking his stand up-hill.
[307] For these four chapters and the “Verse of the Throne,” vide page 108, note [454]. The texts are first repeated and the breath is then exhaled on the breast, shoulders, and hands.
CHAPTER XXVIII
METHOD OF SNARING A WILD GOSHAWK WITH THE AID OF A LAMP
Method of Snaring a Goshawk with the Aid of a Lamp.—Should you happen to see a goshawk (t̤arlān) settle on a tree towards sunset, keep a careful watch on it from a distance till three or four hours after dusk, and see that it is not disturbed. Then take a long light pole of sufficient length to reach the hawk, and firmly bind to one end a horse-hair noose; a span’s distance below the noose fasten a lighted wax-candle. Take this pole and proceed alone towards the tree on which the goshawk is sleeping, till within thirty yards of it. Now, with noiseless steps, advance very slowly for ten yards; and then halt for seven or eight minutes: next extinguish the candle and remain in the dark for two or three minutes. Re-light the candle and advance ten yards more, very very slowly; and then halt for some minutes: then extinguish the candle and wait another two or three minutes in the dark. Re-light the candle, and, holding it aloft, advance stealthily to the foot of the tree.