THE SICKNESS CALLED _KARAJ_,[693] WHICH IS COSTIVENESS
The symptoms of this disease are, that the soft feathers under the
tail and round the vent are soiled by the mutes; that when muting the
hawk raises her tail higher than usual, mutes with difficulty, and is
unable to cast the mutes clear to a distance.
_Treatment_: feed the hawk for some days on the flesh of a cockerel,
sprinkling the flesh with the juice of the marsh-mallow;[694] feed
her thus twice a day. Further, anoint the vent with almond or with
olive oil. _Item_: vary her food, giving her pigeons and sparrows, and
the larks called by the Arabs _quṃburah_. Apply the clyster-stick as
already described, dipping the cotton-wool in oil of peach kernels,
apricot kernels, and almonds; administer it before feeding her: give
her also a pill of powdered sugar-candy[695] mixed in a pat of cow’s
butter the size of two filberts. She will, please God, be cured. Keep
water ever near her, that she may drink her fill. _Item_: take oil of
apricot kernels, and powdered cummin seed,[696] a quantity equal to
the size of a walnut. Sprinkle the powdered cummin seed on the vent;
then anoint the vent and adjacent parts with the oil. Do this for
three days in succession, and she shall be whole. This is the practice
of the ancient falconers. _Item_: anoint her vent a few times with a
mixture of oil of jasmine, white wax, and pitch.[697] _Item_: take
marrow of the shin-bone of a goat and mix it with her food for a few
days. If the goat be an old female, so much the better.
FOOTNOTES:
[693] Apparently the “Stoone in the fundement” of the _Boke of St.
Albans_.
[694] _K͟hat̤mī_, the “Persian Hollyhock,” and the “Marsh-Mallow.” It
is the latter that is used in medicine.
[695] Powdered sugar-candy is a simple and harmless purge for hawks.
About eighty grains’ weight is a suitable dose for a female peregrine
in good condition.
[696] There are two kinds of cummin seed, the black and the white: the
former is used in cooking, the latter in medicine.
[697] _Zift_, “pitch,” and also a kind of ointment said to be made of
black damar.