RED JUNGLEFOWL 203 



'' If the jaws be fleshy, or if the wattles are large, and it is desired to remove them, 

 then extract the oil of bhilawan and rub it on the cock's face, and if it please God this 

 defect will be removed and will not return. If the comb is too large and it is desired to 

 cut it off, then, after fighting, cut the comb immediately to the size desired, applying 

 to the wound the white web of a small spider, or else staunch with small feathers plucked 

 from under the cock's wings : until a recovery takes place do not spout the cock. Then 

 take a quarter of a piece of tumeric and add half a nux vomica nut and a little edible 

 lime and heat over the fire, and plaster the mixture thickly on the cock's face ; if it is the 

 cold season, keep the cock in the sun, if the hot, in the shade. The cock must not be fed 

 during the day, but in the evening after fomentation, when it should be fed on halwa or 

 on bread dipped in fresh milk. In the evening the cock should be fomented with a pad 

 dipped in a liquid decoction. 



" After fifteen days, when the cock has recovered from its wound, let it be fought for 

 \,yNO pant with the unmuzzled dalba, and act as described above. After twenty-two days 

 let the trainer fight his cock ihrct pam and act as before. After forty days let him fight 

 ioMV pam, and lastly, after an interval, five pant. After fighting five pant, he should 

 foment the cock's face with a small bag of halwa, and dipping a pad into the hot liquid 

 application, he should foment the loins, the hip-joints, both the shoulder-joints, the 

 breast, and between the legs as described above. After this evening fomentation, he 

 should feed the cock on halwa, or on bread dipped in fresh milk. In the morning he 

 should again foment in the same manner, and, mixing some of the best missi in wine, 

 should heat it on the fire and paint the cock's face thickly with it. Increase gradually 

 the number oi pant up to eleven, acting as just described. Then fight your cock for a 

 wager with some one, having first put it on dry food, and please God the cock of your 

 antagonist will be unable to face yours. 



" Just before fighting your cock, you (being in a state of ceremonial purity) should 

 repeat once into each of its ears the words, ''Allah the Immutable," and exhale your 

 breath, and if it please God Most High your cock will never deteriorate. 



" Should your cock show signs of flight, then give it this corrective : — 



" Musk, tabashir, small cardamoms ; pound and put in a paper. Take of juice of 

 Indian sweet fennel seed two ounces and put it in a vessel. When you see that your 

 cock intends flight, first give it two mashas of the powdered medicine, and then two 

 tolas of the juice. Your cock will go mad and will never quit the field. 



"■ When you wish to cease fighting your cock, and to pair him with a hen, do so, but 

 pair him with a mature hen, but this must be in the warm days of spring. You must 

 not mate your cock with a young hen." 



LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITION 



Since the first domestic cock crowed, mankind has admired, hated or feared it, has 

 thought of it with reverence, with dislike or with superstition. We have space for 

 mention of but one or two of the legends which have arisen concerning it. 



One Al-Qazwini, who died about 1283, wrote an Arabic work, the Aja ib-ul- 

 Makhluqat, or the ''World of Wonders," and has this to say about the domestic cock : — 



" The cock is the most lustful and vainest of birds. It heralds the dawn. One of 



