Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/839

Rh directly from the falconer's hand to the game and seized it were regarded as ignoble and of base flight. The Turcomans, Chinese, and Kirghiz, being more practical in their views, especially esteem these birds of direct flight, and have carried their training to a high degree of perfection. The Turcoman nomad, hunting his game as a matter of business, does not want his falcon to attack it too savagely; that would be a waste. His bird should strike the animal as a bullet or an arrow would, and, if he misses it, should stay upon the ground within reach of his master. In the oases like those of Samarcand and Tashkend, wooded with large trees and intercepted by high walls and wide and deep canals, a bird making long and circuitous flights would be often out of sight and sometimes hard to find. Hence birds that fly low are preferred to those that soar aloft.

Under these conditions the manner of dispatching the bird is of considerable importance. It is not usual to dispatch it for the game when it is still, but it is unhooded when the game is first seen and while it is yet in motion, and it should be started in such a way that the game shall be the first thing to attract its attention.

The only special articles in the costume of the falconers are the glove and the bird's hood. The glove is of white goatskin, and is armed with a gauntlet for the lower arm. The hood is a little sack of leather or padded cloth, furnished with a running string at its lower part and a leather or metallic ring on the upper part. To put the cap on, the bird is offered a piece of meat, while the owner holds the hood in such a position that it can be slipped over the bird's head as it stretches it out for the morsel. The meat is not given to the falcon, because if it were he would