ON DISEASES OF THE MOUTH
Should your hawk’s[666] mouth become ulcerated, or break out in an
eruption so that she is unable to eat,[667] then:—
_Remedy_: first bind a piece of cotton cloth on your finger, which
then introduce into the hawk’s mouth, and rub the eruption till
the blood comes. Take sumac and gall-apple, pounded and mixed, and
apply them with the finger protected as before. You must insert
your finger right up to her throat, for the disease is sure to have
spread thus far. _Item_: treat in the same way, substituting syrup of
pomegranates. Then, for a few days, give her, when feeding, the bones
and feathers of the neck of the birds she eats, but of a size that she
can swallow them, only with difficulty. Should any excrescence remain
in her throat, it will be carried down by the bones, and next morning
the throat is again scraped and cleansed by the casting. _Item_: make
a twist of cotton cloth, three or four fingers’ breadth in length.
Grind barberries with their stones, and mix a little juice of willow
leaves, and apply this freely with the cloth, which must be inserted
as far as the crop.[668] Then withdraw the cloth, and if God pleases
that ailment will be removed.
SWOLLEN PALATE.—If your hawk’s palate becomes swollen—and I have
seen a hawk’s palate so swollen that she could not close her
beak—then:—_Treatment_: cast your hawk and examine her mouth. If the
swelling is red, brand it lengthways, in two places, with a packing
needle, so that pus[669] may form and she may be cured. If the
swelling is white and hard, it is an indication that it is of long
standing, although it may hitherto have escaped your notice. You must
make a long slit in the swelling and then remove the congealed white
substance from its inside. After that rub the wound with black pepper,
that it may not refill with matter. You must further feed the hawk
on the hot lights[670] of a hare, and let her eat this flesh with
the blood. Once a day wash out her mouth with either sumac juice or
pomegranate syrup.
FOOTNOTES:
[666] _Qūsh_: a term applied to any large bird of prey, and especially
to the goshawk.
[667] This disease is “the frounce i the mouth” of old English
falconers. It is said to resemble thrush in children and to proceed
from damp. The _Boke of St. Albans_ tells us that “The frounce commyth
when a man fedith his hawke withe porke or cattis flesh iiij days
to geyder.” In India this disease, though not uncommon amongst the
short-winged hawks, does not seem to attack the long-winged hawks. I
have never seen or heard of any falcon being afflicted with it. Bert,
however (page 82, Harting’s edition), says that the long-winged hawk
is more susceptible to it than the short-winged.
[668] _Ḥawṣala_, “crop.”
[669] _Jarāḥat_, “wound,” in m.c. is “pus, or matter from an _open_
wound”: _mādda_ is pus inside a swelling before it is opened.
[670] _Jigar-i safīd_, “white liver,” _i.e._, “the lungs, the lights.”