"He taught him horsemanship, archery and how to wield lasso, rein and stirrup, and what and when and how, the rites of of convivial society, of formal ceremony and the symposium; hawking, falconry and how to hunt with the cheetah; what was justice or the lack of it; what the throne and the crown meant; how to deliver orations and how to go to war and lead an army."
The Shahnameh (courtesy of R.A.W.)
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Oldest Falconry Film?
I have the Craighead film of their months with an Indian prince just before WWII, which is not unlike having films of Emperor Frederic in Medieval Sicily, or of being able to step into the print of Vadim Gorbatov's "Kublai Khan's Hawking Party" hanging to my right. But this short film, made before the first World War in Algeria in 1909, and sent by several readers, may be the oldest hawking ever filmed if not the most elevated (a friend cracked "just like you guys-- throwing (implying "wasting") peregrines at bunnies". Brief saluki glimpses too...
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1 comment:
Fantastic---but I wonder if those salukis are REAL SALUKIS, or just "lurchers"(ahem!).....L.B.
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