A fourth; your hawk learns to take every quarry at which she is flown: should you fail to find partridges you need not return with an empty bag, tired and cross; for you can fly her at hubara, ravens, stone-plovers, etc., instead.
My son, teach your hawk the habits that I have described. Also accustom her to drink freely;[389] accustom her after each meal to drink a beakful or two. Always, about two hours after dark, offer her water in a cup held close in front of her; try to induce her[390] to take a few beakfuls, as by so doing she will digest easily.[391] Accustom her to drinking at least two or three times a day, either from a cup or from a stream. If she drink only one beakful, it is an advantage, especially at night. Drinking keeps her in health.
Now my son, know that it is the pride and glory of a falconer to train long-winged, not short-winged hawks; for the natural quarry of the former is rats, black-breasted sand-grouse, pigeons, duck, and small birds; but when falcons fall into the hands of a competent falconer, they are required to take common cranes, geese, and gazelles. If the falconer be not skilled, how can such quarry be taken by the falcon? As for goshawks, their natural quarry in the hills is partridges and pigeons, and in the hands of the falconer they do no more than kill partridges: it is merely incumbent on the falconer to familiarize them with horses, dogs and men, so that after “putting in” they may take stand and not make off.
Now I, the slave of the Royal Court, was once in attendance on His Majesty (may our souls be his sacrifice) in the hills of (——?)[392] in Māzenderān. One day a flight of snow-cock[393] rose suddenly in front of the August Presence of the King of Kings. I had on my fist a female t̤arlān of two moults. The moment the covey, consisting of twenty or thirty birds,[394] rose, I cast off my hawk, and she promptly took one cock in the air.[395] I hastily dismounted and gave her the brain only; I did not feed her up. Meanwhile the “Qibla[396] of the Universe” dismounted and became busy with his breakfast. I took the snow-cock into the Presence: it was examined and I was complimented. I remounted and rode on a short distance, when three more snow-cock rose in front of me. I flew the same hawk and took one,[397] and the Shāh had not finished breakfast when I bore it into the Presence. He applauded me and bestowed on me a shawl, for it is most unusual for a goshawk to succeed in taking a snow-cock. A goshawk may indeed take one straight away, in the air, just as it has risen,[398] but she cannot make one “put in,” for a snow-cock will fly for miles.[399]
FOOTNOTES:
[314] Qapāncha kardan, “to mail” a hawk: vide page 59, note [247].
[315] Pācha-band, “jesses.” In the Derajat, Panjab, the term is restricted to cotton or silk jesses, fitted with “varvels” (rings); vide page 18, note [83]. Shikār-band “leash;” but in the Derajat the thin leather thong that attaches the swivel to the jesses is so called: vide page 18, note [83]. For “halsband” vide page 3, note [31].
[316] Much stroking on the back is to be avoided, as it removes the oil that makes the back feathers impervious to rain.
[317] ʿAsr, that is two and a half hours before sunset; the time mid-way between noon and sunset.
[318] In countries under Muslim rule the watch is set daily at sunset, which is 12 o’clock.