HAUL, _v._ To pull, to draw, to drag by violence, to draw a net.
HAUL, _s._ Pull, violence in dragging; a draught of fishes.
HAUM, _s._ Straw.
HAUNCH, _s._ The thigh, the hind hip; the hind part of a deer.
HAUNT, _v._ To frequent, to be much about any place.
HAUNT, _s._ Place in which game feed and are found.
HAW, _s._ The berry and seed of the hawthorn; a hedge; an
excrescence in the eye; a small piece of ground adjoining to a
house.
HAWTHORN, _s._ The thorn that bears haws; the white thorn.
HAWTHORN, _a._ Belonging to the white thorn; consisting of white
thorn.
HAWK, _s._ A bird of prey, used much anciently in sport to catch
other birds.
Hawks (_Accipitrina_, _Vigors_) are birds of prey, belonging to the
falcon family (_Falconidæ_, LEACH), and characterised by the wings being
short, and, when closed, scarcely reaching to the end of the tail; the
first quill feather very short, the third nearly equal to the fourth,
which is the longest in the wing; shanks plaited, long, and slender;
middle toe greatly exceeding the two lateral ones in length; claws much
hooked, and very sharp; flight rapid and direct. They pounce upon their
prey on the wing, and are so bold as to attack much larger birds than
themselves.
* * * * *
_Breaking of Hawks._—When the hawk is placed upon the fist with his hood
on, he will at first _bait_, (flutter off,) when he is to be replaced
gently by the hand; but he will very soon learn to sit still. He must be
carried on the fist during the greater part of the day frequently, and
stroked with a feather on his back and legs.
When he is to be fed, the hood must be taken off. At first, this is best
done at night, with a candle so placed as to give no more light than is
absolutely necessary; but in two or three days this precaution will not
be required, and he may be unhooded, and fed by daylight.
He must now be brought, by degrees, to stand quiet when the hood is to
be put on.
The brail is used for this purpose. This is a thong of soft leather,
with a slit running longitudinally along the middle, of such a length as
to admit the pinion joint.
When the pinion joint has been introduced into the slit, the lower end
of the thong is brought backwards under the wing, and tied to the other
end above it.
The wing is thus confined, and in such a way as to remove it but little
from its natural position, and so that it can receive no injury.
Another very effectual way to make a hawk stand quiet is, by causing
water to stream upon him, from a wisp of hay or straw, until he is
thoroughly drenched. This should always be done in the morning, and he
should be carried on the fist until he is dry, with his wing _brailed_,
be stroked with a feather, and hooded and unhooded very frequently.
When he has become a little accustomed to the hood, neither the brail
nor the drenching will be necessary, but he must be carried almost all
day upon the fist. The hood is to be occasionally taken off, and he may
then be allowed for a short time to pull upon a stump or pinion from
which he can get but little meat.
A few mouthfuls should always be given to him the moment the hood is put
on.
Hawks, when hooded, are always quiet. In the field the hood prevents
them from _baiting_ when birds rise, and, at other times, from being
alarmed at any thing that may approach them.
It may, perhaps, appear paradoxical to assert, that hawks, by being kept
hooded, are brought nearer to their natural habits, but this is
undoubtedly the case, for by this treatment they are induced to remain
at rest when they are not either feeding, or in pursuit of game; and
such are their habits in a wild state, when left undisturbed.
When the hawk is become tolerably tame, he may be unhooded, and, after
having eaten a few mouthfuls, be placed on the block, and enticed to
come from thence to the fist when held near him. He will soon learn to
fly to it when it is presented to him at the distance of several feet,
the fist being, of course, always well garnished with meat.
When he has been practised in this manner for a few days, if he be
unhooded on the fist, and a small piece of meat be thrown on the ground,
to the distance of two or three feet, he will fly down to it, and having
eaten it, fly back to the fist, enticed, as usual, by the offer of food.
* * * * *
The sport of hawking is generally placed at the head of those amusements
that can only be practised in the country, and probably it obtained this
precedency from its being a pastime so generally followed by the
nobility, not in this country only, but also upon the continent. Persons
of high rank rarely appeared without their dogs and their hawks; the
latter they carried with them when they journeyed from one country to
another, and sometimes even when they went to battle, and would not part
with them to procure their own liberty when taken prisoners. Sometimes
they formed part of the train of an ecclesiastic.
These birds were considered as ensigns of nobility: and no action could
be reckoned more dishonourable to a man of rank than to give up his
hawk.
I cannot trace the origin of hawking to an earlier period than the
middle of the fourth century. Julius Firmicus, who lived about that
time, is the first Latin author that speaks of falconers, and the art of
teaching one species of birds to fly after and catch others.
The grand fauconnier of France was an officer of great eminence; his
annual salary was four thousand florins; he was attended by fifty
gentlemen, and fifty assistant falconers; he was allowed to keep three
hundred hawks; he licensed every vender of hawks in France, and received
a tax upon every bird sold in that kingdom, and even within the verge of
the court; and the king never rode out upon any occasion of consequence
without this officer attending him.
Edward III., according to Froissart, had with him in his army when he
invaded France, thirty falconers on horseback, who had charge of his
hawks; and every day he either hunted, or went to the river for the
purpose of hawking, as his fancy inclined him.
We may also here notice, that the ladies not only accompanied the
gentlemen in pursuit of this diversion, but often practised it by
themselves; and, if we may believe a contemporary writer, in the
thirteenth century, they even excelled the men in knowledge and exercise
of the art of falconry, which reason, he very ungallantly produces, in
proof that the pastime was frivolous and effeminate. Hawking was
forbidden to the clergy by the canons of the church; but the prohibition
was by no means sufficient to restrain them from the pursuit of this
favourite and fashionable amusement. On which account, as well as for
hunting, they were severely lashed by the poets and moralists; and,
indeed, the one was rarely spoken of without the other being included;
for those who delighted in hawking were generally proficients in hunting
also.
When the hawk was not flying at her game, she was usually hood-winked,
with a cap or hood provided for that purpose, and fitted to her head;
and this hood was worn abroad as well as at home. All hawks taken upon
“the fist,” the term used for carrying them upon the hand, had straps of
leather, called jesses, put upon their legs. The jesses were made
sufficiently long for the knots to appear between the middle and the
little fingers of the hand that held them, so that the lunes, or small
thongs of leather, might be fastened to them with two tyrrits, or rings;
and the lunes were loosely wound round the little finger. It appears
that sometimes the jesses were of silk. Lastly, their legs were adorned
with bells, fastened with rings of leather, each leg having one; and the
leathers, to which the bells were attached, were denominated bewits; and
to the bewits was added the creance, or long thread, by which the bird
in tutoring, was drawn back, after she had been permitted to fly; and
this was called the reclaiming of the hawk. The bewits, we are informed,
were useful to keep the hawk from “winding when she bated,” that is,
when she fluttered her wings to fly after her game.
Respecting the bells, it is particularly recommended that they should
not be too heavy, to impede the flight of the bird; and that they should
be of equal weight, sonorous, shrill, and musical; not both of one
sound, but the one a semitone below the other; they ought not to be
broken, especially in the sounding part, because, in that case, the
sound emitted would be dull and unpleasing. “There is, says the book of
Saint Alban’s, great choice of sparrow-hawk bells, and they are cheap
enough; but for goshawk bells, those made at Milan, are called the best;
and, indeed, they are excellent; for they are commonly sounded with
silver, and charged for accordingly. But we have good bells brought from
Dordreght (Dort), which are well paired, and produce a very shrill, but
pleasant sound.”
* * * * *
The person who carried the hawk was provided with gloves for that
purpose, to prevent their talons from hurting his hand. In the
inventories of apparel belonging to King Henry VIII. such articles
frequently occur; at Hampton Court, in the jewel house, were seven
hawkes’ gloves embroidered.—_Montagu_—_Sebright_—_Strutt._
HAY, _s._ Grass dried to fodder cattle in winter.
Much in a horse’s condition depends on the quality of his hay; good hay
is easily chosen, and the smell and colour afford a test of its quality
not to be mistaken.
HAZARD, _s._ Chance, accident; chance of danger; a game at dice.
Any number of persons may play hazard. The person who takes the box and
dice, throws a main, that is to say, a chance for the company, which
must be above four, and not exceed nine, otherwise it is no main,
consequently he must keep throwing till he brings five, six, seven,
eight, or nine; this done, he must throw his own chance, which may be
any above three, and not exceeding ten: if he throw two aces or
trois-ace (commonly called crabs), he loses his stakes, let the
company’s chance, called the main, be what it will. If the main should
be seven, and seven or eleven be thrown immediately after, it is what is
called a nick, and the caster (the present player) wins out his stakes:
also, if eight be the main, and eight or twelve thrown immediately
after, it is also called a nick, and the caster wins his stakes. The
caster throwing any other number for the main, such as is admitted, and
bringing the same number directly afterwards, that is likewise termed a
nick, and he then also wins whatever stakes he has made.
Every three successive mains the caster wins, he is to pay half a guinea
to the box or furnisher of the dice.
The meaning of a stake or bet at this game differs somewhat from the
other. If a person choose to lay a sum of money with the thrower or
caster, he must put his cash upon the table, within a circle which is
described for that purpose; when he has done this, if the caster agree
to it, he knocks the box upon the table at the person’s money with whom
he intends to bet, or particularly mentions at whose money he throws,
which is sufficient, and he is obliged to answer whatever sum is down,
unless the staker calls to cover; in that case the caster is obliged to
stake also, otherwise the bets would be void. It is optional in the
person who bets with the thrower, to bar any throw which the caster may
be going to cast, provided neither of the dice be seen; if one die
should be discovered, the caster must throw the other to it, unless the
throw is barred in proper time.
The common odds, which are absolutely necessary to be understood, before
any person attempts to play or bet at this game, are as follow: if seven
be thrown for the main, and four the chance, it is 2 to 1 against the
person who throws; if six to four be thrown, 5 to 3; if five to four, 4
to 3; seven to nine, 3 to 2; seven to six, 3 to 2, barring the two
trois; with the two trois, only six to five; seven to five, 3 to 2; six
to five, an even bet, barring the doublets or the two trois; with the
trois, 5 to 4; eight to five, an even bet, barring the two fours; five
to four with the two fours; nine to five, even; nine to four, is 4 to 3;
the nick of seven is 7 to 2, but often laid but 10 to 3; and five to one
you do not nick six or eight.
To illustrate these calculations still more clearly, the following table
will be serviceable:—