ON PARALYSIS OF A TOE
Sometimes a hawk loses all power in one of its toes and is quite
unable to grasp its food with it. _Treatment_: apply a leech. If this
fail, brand the toe lengthways with a needle, taking care that the
tendon[748] is not burnt. If these two remedies fail, waste no time
in further treatment, and “labour not at beating cold iron.” Many a
hawk have I seen with this disease, but seldom a cure. The long-winged
hawks are more liable to it than the short-winged. Perhaps the injury
arises from a strain, by the hawk grasping her food too tight and
straining or tearing a tendon. Now a severed tendon will not join.
Should such an accident happen to your hawk, God grant that it fall on
one of her small toes, for that is not so serious; but if it happen to
one of her “hunting talons”[749] she is ruined; she can do no good at
all.
O hawk, if of your hand a tendon break
For evermore you must the hunt forsake.
FOOTNOTES:
[748] _Rag-i pāy-i ū_, “tendon.”
[749] _Mik͟hlab-i shikārī._