Note 790 — Chapter LXVI · CURE FOR THE VICE OF “SOARING”

“But if you will have me grant that which I cannot yeelde unto, that hauing flowne a Partridge to a house, notwithstanding all these kinde courses taken with her, thee hath caught a Hen, then let some one in the company, that can tell how to doe it, make haste unto her, taking up both Hawke and Hen, and runne to a pond or pit of water, (there is no dwelling house inhabited, and where hens are, but you shall finde some water) and thereinto ouer-head and taile wash them both together three or foure times.... It is not possible there should be a hawke so ill but by this means she will be recouered.”—Bert’s Treatise of Hawkes and Hawking (pages 54-55, Harting’s reprint). An Indian device to disgust a hawk with a particular quarry is to rub asafœtida on it. This is said to be effectual. It is, however, not always an easy matter to break a hawk of a quarry at which she flies with zest. The translator once had a young passage-saker trained to and flown only a few times at kite. He took the quarry from her without rewarding her, a dog frightened her, an old woman threw a blanket over her; in fact she suffered every ill a kite-hawk can suffer after taking the quarry, but she was not broken of the quarry.