The Origin Of Falconry Is Ascribed By Al-Mas’Udi, On The Authority Of Adham Bin Muhriz, To The King Al-Haris Bin Mu’Awiyah, And In Dr. Sprenger’S Admirable Translation The Reader Will Find (Pp.

426, 428), much information upon the subject.

The Persians claim the invention for their just King, Anushirawan, contemporary with Mohammed. Thence the sport passed into Turkey, where it is said the Sultans maintained a body of 6000 falconers. And Frederic Barbarossa, in the twelfth century, brought falcons to Italy. We may fairly give the honour of the invention to Central Asia. [FN#41] Here called “bandukiyah bi ruhayn,” or the two-mouthed gun. The leathern cover is termed “gushat”; it is a bag with a long-ringed tassel at the top of the barrel, and a strap by which it is slung to the owner’s back. [FN#42] I described elsewhere the Mirzak, or javelin. [FN#43] Ostriches are found in Al-Hijaz, where the Badawin shoot after coursing them. The young ones are caught and tamed, and the eggs may be bought in the Madinah bazar. Throughout Arabia there is a belief that the ostrich throws stones at the hunter. The superstition may have arisen from the pebbles being flung up behind by the bird’s large feet in his rapid flight, or it may be a mere “foolery of fancy.” Even in lands which have long given up animal-worship, wherever a beast is conspicuous or terrible, it becomes the subject of some marvellous tale.

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