MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
If wheat be soaked three times in the froth of a _mast_ camel and then
dried and given to birds to eat, they will fall senseless. Also if
beans be boiled in rats-bane,[802] and then scattered in a spot where
common cranes, and wild geese, and crows, and choughs collect, those
that eat thereof will fall down in a swoon, and if left alone will
become _ḥarām_.[803] When you take these birds, cut their throats and
at once rip open the stomach and cast away the contents, so that the
poison may not spread to the flesh.[804]
If you lose a hawk when out hawking and do not recover her till the
next day or a few days after, know that, whether she be a young hawk
of the year or a moulted[805] hawk, she will ever after be a trouble
to you, for her nature will have changed for the worse, especially if
she has preyed for herself while out. As for me, _I_ would not keep
her; my friends may please themselves.
Perchance some night your hawk may wanton prove,
And leaving place and keeper seek to rove.
Moreover, oh! my friend, should vagrant prey
Fall to her beak as quarry while astray;
Think not, howe’er you worry, to retain
Your hawk, that she can ever fly again.
Beshrew the jade! I would not have her so,
Not as a gift, though friends might scarce say “No.”
When garden trees run riot o’er the wall
The gardener brings his axe and fells them all.
To me, the noblest bird of all is she,
That ever sits on friends’ hands willingly.
May this _Bāz-Nāma_, written thus by me,
When I am dust, keep green my memory.
I wrote it in the Great Shāh’s golden days,
The King whose orders Heaven itself obeys;
High Rank and Fortune riding rein to rein,
With honour and with glory swell his train;
The game of courage captive in his noose:
His strength is mighty and his gifts profuse;
His barbéd arrows are God’s swift decrees;
His butts the lives of all his enemies.
His strength of arm is such as angels know,
The curvéd sky he uses as his bow.
When Heaven itself to praise the Shāh would fail,
What can _Mushtāqī’s_[806] humble verse avail?
This book, by the aid of the Munificent King, was finished on the day
of Wednesday, in the month of _Zū ’l-Qaʿda_ the Sacred, in the year
1285[807] of the Flight of the Prophet; and it contains the Views and
Experience of _Taymūr Mīrzā_, son of _Ḥusayn ʿAlī Mīrzā_, and bearer
of the title of Governor of the Province of _Fārs_.
[Illustration: (Printer's mark)]
PRINTED FOR BERNARD QUARITCH, 11, GRAFTON STREET, LONDON, W.,
BY G. NORMAN AND SON, FLORAL STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON, W.C.
FOOTNOTES:
[802] _Marg-i mūsh_, P., or _samm^u ’l-fār_, Ar. (_lit._ “death to
mice”) is “white arsenic.”
[803] _i.e._, they will die of their own accord and so be “unlawful”
for food.
[804] “If you desire to take _House doves_, _Stock doves_, _Rooks_,
_Choughs_, or any other Birds, then take Wheat, Barley, _Fetches_,
Tares, or other Grain, and boil them very well with good store of
Nux Vomica, in ordinary running water. When they are almost boiled,
dry and ready to burst, take them off the Fire and set them by till
they be thoroughly cold. Having so done scatter this grain in the
Haunts of those Birds you have a mind to take; and as soon as they
have tasted thereof, they will fall down in a dead _sound_, and shall
not be able to recover themselves in a good while. And as you take
these Great Land-fowl with this Drunken Device, so you shall take
the middle and smaller Sort of Birds, if you observe to boil with
what Food they delight in, a quantity of this Nux Vomica.” Further
on, the same writer says that “Lees of Wine,” can be substituted for
Nux Vomica, and also that the grain may be steeped in the “Juice of
Hemlock, adding thereto some Henbane seed or poppy seed, causing them
to be infused therein four or five days.” “HOW TO RECOVER A FOWL THUS
ENTRANCED:—If you would restore these entranced Fowl to their former
Health, take a quantity of Sallet-oyle, according to the strength and
Bigness of the Fowl and drop it down the throat of the Fowl; then
chafe the Head with a little strong White-wine-vinegar, and the Fowl
will presently recover and be as well as ever.”—From the _Gentleman’s
Recreation_, by Richard Blome.
[805] By “moulted” (_t̤ulakī_) the author probably means “intermewed.”
[806] _Mushtāqī_, the author’s _tak͟halluṣ_ or poetical _nom de plume_.
[807] Corresponding to A.D. 1868.
[Illustration: XXV
HUNTING AND HAWKING SCENE]
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned between paragraphs
and outside quotations.
Illustrations without captions have had a description added, this is
denoted with parentheses.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the
text and consultation of external sources.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a
predominant preference was found in the original book.
Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
Pg 10: Added second “as” in “as well as in affection”
Footnote 151: Replaced “Turk-Orientale” with “Turk-Oriental”
Footnote 175: Removed duplicate “at” from “one bird at at a time”
Footnote 180: Replaced “Ezerum” with “Erzerum”
Pg 58: Replaced “skikār-chīs” with “shikār-chīs”
Footnote 277: “Albion” corrected to “Albin”
Pg 73: Replaced “short-winded” with “short-winged”
Pg 80: Replaced “too” with “to” in “may pass too and fro”
Pg 85: Added “is” in “for this a mistake”
Pg 139: Replaced “that” with “than” in
“better for this flight that the intermewed hawk”
Pg 143: Replaced “made-hawk” with “make-hawk”
Pg 147: Replaced “cammon crane” with “common crane”
Footnote 750: Replaced “hardan” with “kardan”