The question whether Falconry was known to the ancient Greeks, has
been determined in the negative by Flavius Blondus[544], Laurentius
Valla[545], both writers of the fifteenth century; and likewise
by Rigallius[546], Pancirollus, Salmuth, and many others. It may,
nevertheless, be here asked, what is generally understood under that
term? However much the thousand barks which carried the Grecians to the
siege of Troy might have been inferior to those floating castles lately
seen by my countrymen before Gibraltar, they were nevertheless ships;
and we cannot, on that account, deny that the Greeks were acquainted
with the art of ship-building, though it was evidently then in its
infancy. In the like manner I agree with Giraldus[547], in allowing
that they had some knowledge of falconry. I do not believe that they
knew the art of hawking, that is, of chasing game with birds of prey
previously trained, as practised in modern times, and which serves more
for the amusement of trifling princes than for any useful purpose; but
that they had begun to employ the rapacity of some of the winged tribe
in hunting and fowling, cannot, in my opinion, be denied[548].
So early as the time of Ctesias, hares and foxes were hunted in India
by means of rapacious birds[549]. The account of Aristotle however is
still more to the purpose, and more worthy of notice[550]. “In Thrace,”
says he, “the men go out to catch birds with hawks[551]. The men beat
the reeds and bushes which grow in marshy places, in order to raise
the small birds, which the hawks pursue and drive to the ground, where
the fowler kills them with poles.” A similar account is to be found in
another book ascribed also to Aristotle, which appears, at any rate,
to be the work of an author not much younger, but with two additions,
which render the circumstance still more remarkable[552]. The first is,
that the falcons appeared when called by their names; and the second,
that of their own accord they brought to the fowlers whatever they
caught themselves. Nothing is here wanting but the spaniel employed to
find out game, the hood which is put upon the head of the hawk while
it is perched on the hand, and the thong used for holding it, to form
a short description of falconry as still practised. Our falconers,
when they have taken the bird from the hawk, give him, in return, a
small share of it; and in the like manner the Thracian hawks received
some part of their booty. Other writers after Aristotle, such as
Antigonus[553], Ælian[554], Pliny[555], and Phile[556], have also
given an account of this method of fowling. Ælian, who seldom relates
anything without some alteration or addition, says that in Thrace
nets were used, into which the birds were driven by the hawks; and in
this he is followed by the poet Phile. Ælian, also, in another place
describes a manner of hunting with hawks in India, which, as we are
told by several travellers, is still practised in Persia, where it is
well understood, and by other eastern nations[557].
It seems, therefore, that the Greeks received from India and Thrace the
first information respecting the method of fowling with birds of prey;
but it does not appear that this practice was introduced among them at
a very early period. In Italy, however, it must have been very common,
for Martial and Apuleius speak of it as a thing everywhere known.
The former calls a hawk a fowler’s servant, and the latter makes use
of a kind of pun on the word _accipiter_, which signified also a
species of fish[558]. It cannot indeed be said that this art was ever
forgotten; but, like other inventions, though at first much admired,
it was afterwards neglected, so that it remained a long time without
improvement. It is however certain that it was at length brought to the
utmost degree of perfection. It is mentioned in the Roman laws[559],
and in writers of the fourth and fifth centuries.
Julius Firmicus Maternus, who in the time of Constantine the Great,
about the year 336, wrote his Astronomicon, in which he teaches
the art of casting nativities, assures us that those who are born
under certain signs will become great sportsmen, and keep hounds and
falcons[560]. Caius Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius, who lived about the
year 480, celebrates Herdicius, his wife’s brother, and son of the
emperor Avitus, because he first practised in his territories hunting
and fowling with dogs and hawks. The same author mentions hawking also
in other parts of his work. That this diversion, however, has not been
oftener spoken of and praised, needs excite little wonder. Hunting,
and all the concomitant arts, were at first employed for use; in the
course of time they were practised by servants, and easy means only
of catching game were sought for. But when luxury was introduced into
states, and the number of those who lived by other people’s labour
increased, these idlers began to employ that time which they had not
learned to make a proper use of, or which they were not compelled to
apply to more valuable purposes, in catching wild animals by every
method that ingenuity could suggest, or in tormenting them by lingering
deaths. Hunting and fowling, therefore, received many improvements by
the assistance of art; and the indolent clergy even indulged in these
cruel sports, though often forbidden by the church. Such prohibitions
were issued by the council of Agda in the year 506; by that of Epaon in
517; by that of Macon in 585, and perhaps oftener, but never with much
effect.
Before I proceed further, I shall make two remarks. First, that Pietro
Crescentio gives one Daucus as the inventor of the art of taming
hawks, but without proof, or even probability. Secondly, that the
ancients bred up to hunting and fishing several rapacious animals
which at present are not used for that purpose, such as the seal[561]
and sea-wolf[562]. Astruc[563] has endeavoured to confute this idea;
but his reasoning appears to me to have little weight; and I agree in
opinion with Rondeletius and Isaac Vossius[564], that seals might be
instructed to catch fish; I myself have seen some, that, when commanded
by their master, exhibited a variety of movements and tricks which
undoubtedly prove their aptness to learn.
The art of falconry seems to have been carried to the greatest
perfection, and to have been much in vogue at the principal courts of
Europe in the twelfth century. Some on that account have ascribed the
invention of it to the emperor Frederic I., and others to Frederic
II. Frederic I., called Barbarossa, was the first who brought falcons
to Italy; at least Pandolfo Collenuccio[565] says that this was the
common report, and Radevicus[566] seems to confirm it; but I do not
know from what authority Pancirollus tells us that that emperor
invented falconry at the time when he was besieging Rome. Rainaldo,
marquis of Este, was the first among the Italian princes who used
this method of fowling[567]; and that the emperor Henry followed the
example of his father, seems proved by the words of Collenuccio. The
service rendered by Frederic II. to this art, if it can be said to
deserve service, is shown by the book which he wrote in Latin on it,
entitled De Arte Venandi cum Avibus, and which was printed for the
first time at Augsburg in the year 1596, from a manuscript belonging
to Joachim Camerarius, a physician of Nuremberg. It has here and there
deficiencies, because the manuscript was torn, and some additions by
the author’s son Manfred, king of Sicily. In the second book, there is
an account of the use and manner of making hoods, called _capellæ_,
which we are there told were invented by the Arabs. The emperor
received as a present some hooded falcons from Arabian princes, and
procured people from Arabia who understood the management of them[568].
Albertus Magnus has inserted a great deal from the work of this emperor
in his book upon animals.
In none of the sports of the field have the fair sex partaken so much
as in falconry. The ladies formerly kept hawks, in which they greatly
delighted, and which were as much fondled by those who wished to gain
their favour as lap-dogs are at present[569]. What tended principally,
however, to bring it into disuse, was the invention of gunpowder. After
that, hawks were discarded, and the whole enjoyment of fowling was
confined to shooting. Less skill and labour were indeed required in
this new exercise; but the ladies abandoned the pleasures of the chase,
because they disapproved of the use of fire-arms, which were attended
both with alarm and danger.
Among the oldest writers on falconry, we may reckon Demetrius, who
about the year 1270 was physician to the emperor Michael Palæologus.
His book, written in Greek, was first printed at Paris in 1612, by
Nicholas Rigaltius, from a manuscript in the king’s library, and
with the Latin translation of Peter Gyllius[570]. Some other works on
the same subject, the antiquity of which is unknown, were printed at
the same time. One in the Catalonian dialect has the forged title of
Epistola Aquilæ, Symmachi et Theodotionis ad Ptolemæum regem Ægypti
de re accipitraria. All these writings treat chiefly on the rearing
and diseases of hawks; and contain cures, which, though some of them
perhaps may be good enough, would not undoubtedly be all approved by
any person of skill at present[571]. Aloes, to the size of about a
bean, are ordered as a purge; and quicksilver is prescribed for the
itch and outbreaking. We are told also, that a wild and untractable
falcon was confined some time with a hood on in a smith’s shop, where
it was soon tamed by the continual thumping of the hammers. One precept
in Demetrius respecting the art of falconry seems very ill-suited to
the practice of modern times. He desires sportsmen to say their prayers
before they go out to the field. Had this custom been continued to
the present day, many great men would be like the people mentioned by
a certain traveller, who solicit the assistance of God when they are
preparing for a piratical expedition[572]; but with this difference,
that these rovers plunder only strange ships, whereas the latter
destroy the property and possessions of their own subjects.