HAWKING IX PERSIA. 181 



embroidered with hawks, to the beautiful plain of 

 ]Malervaneria, where he is received amidst the loud ac- 

 clamations of thousands of his subjects, assembled from 

 all the provinces of the empire to see the ceremony of 

 swearing fidelity to the royal hawk solemnised. The 

 prince alights from his horse and passes through the 

 ranks of his guards to a glorious throne of the finest 

 workmanship, on which he deliberately places his royal 

 body. As soon as he is seated, he is enclosed by his 

 nobles. Now the gi'eat falconer advances, tall, erect, 

 and firm, and placing the hawk on the top of the 

 sceptre, pronounces a learned harangue on the excel- 

 lence of falconry in general ; but expatiates in par- 

 ticular on the high qualities of the bird which he had 

 the honour to present to his sovereign lord. He ends 

 his oration ynth a solemn and confidential wish that the 

 dominion of the hawk may be as extensive and absolute 

 over the forests of deer as that of the sceptre whereon 

 it sits is over the Persian realm. Then the Sophi, 

 holding out the hawk, orders him to lay the forefinger 

 of his right hand under its pounces, and swear the fol- 

 lowing oath : " I, Pashur JNIirza, JNIottaleb, Fulman, 

 Great Falconer of Persia, do swear by the beard of the 

 Sophi, by the pounces of the hawk, and by Tebadar 

 Sabyed, her guardian angel, that I shall be a true and 

 faithful slave, providing her, to the best of my know- 

 ledge and belief, in the most wholesome food, and most 

 entertaining sport. But if I shall at any time so far 

 neglect my charge as that she may in the least suffer 

 by my cai'elessness, may I become the victim of her 

 vengeance in this world, and drop at the last day from 

 the narrow bridge into the blue foaming billows, which 

 boil for the torture of all slothful and heedless falconers." 



