ANTIQUITY OE HAWKING. 
attacked the animal, fixing the talons of one of his feet into 
the cheek of the creature and the talons of the other into its 
throat, extending his wings obliquely over the animal : spread- 
ing one towards one of its ears, and the other to the opposite 
hip. The animal attacked made a leap twice the height of a 
man, and freed himself from the falcon; but being wounded, 
and losing its strength and speed, it was again attacked by the 
falcon, which fixed the’ talons of both its feet into the throat of 
the animal, and held it fast, till the huntsman coming up, took 
it alive, and cut its throat, the falcon drinking the blood as a 
reward for its labour, and a young falcon which was learning 
was likewise put to the throat of the goat ; by this means are 
young falcons taught to fix their talons in the throat of the 
animal, as being the properest part : for should the falcon fix 
them into the hip, or some other part of the body, the hunts- 
man would not only lose his game, but his falcon also ; for the 
animal, roused by the wound, which could not prove mortal, 
would run to the deserts, and the tops of the mountains, 
whither its enemy, keeping its hold, would be obliged to 
follow, and being separated from its master, must of course 
perish.” 
The mode of capturing and training falcons among the 
Arabs is quite different from that practised in Europe, where 
they are taken very young. The children of the desert prefer 
capturing their falcons when they are at an age to be able at 
once to “ open shop ” on their own account. Their mode is 
as follows. Supposing the Arab to have noted some par- 
ticular place in which falcons abound, usually in ruins or 
rocky places, he provides himself with a pigeon or partridge, 
or any bird that the falcon is fond of. Fastened round the 
body of this bird is a very fine net, and when the sportsman 
has placed his decoy in some convenient spot, in the vicinity of 
the falcons, it is not long before one pounces out upon the 
bird, and is entangled in the net. Out rushes the Arab, who 
has been hiding not far distant, and seizes the falcon before he 
can manage to escape. He then claps a hood over the head 
of the falcon, and fastens jesses to its feet. So long as the 
bird is deprived of sight, it is perfectly powerless, and will not 
make the least attempt at escaping. Its captor then carries 
it home on his shoulders, and commences its education. 
Amongst the Persians, the falcon largely figures in their 
poetry and romances. One of these stories, related in “ My 
Feathered Friends,” has such an exquisite moral attached to it 
