A Morning with the Mehtars Falcons 129 



legacy from the earliest times when kings and 

 emperors, from Alexander the " two -horned " 

 downwards, found in it a relaxation from empire- 

 making and empire-breaking. In Chitral, however, 

 the sport took root, and found so congenial a soil 

 that the falconers of this country are now, in 

 some of its branches at least, unrivalled by any. 

 Who, for instance, in England would believe that 

 a wild-caught goshawk could be manned, trained, 

 and flown at game on the fourteenth day after 

 taking ? And yet this is by no means an uncommon 

 feat in Chitral. Here five days is considered 

 ample period in which to train a sparrow-hawk, 

 and four days a merlin. 



The training of the bigger hawks is always 

 placed in the hands of professional falconers, but 

 there are probably few people of the upper classes 

 in Chitral who are not capable of training a 

 sparrow-hawk or one of the smaller falcons. 

 Indeed, it is the common gibe against the poorer 

 nobles that instead of trying to improve their 

 position they are content to loaf about their 

 orchards all day with sparrow-hawks on their 

 fists. The professional falconers, of whom there 

 are a large number, mostly belong to families 

 who came originally from Badakshan, the home 

 and birthplace of the royal sport. 



The most celebrated of the Mehtar's falconers, 



I 



