111
Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia
Seen by a Diplomat’s Spouse
the end of the nineteenth century, this hobby was the only
opportunity and possibility for the Peninsula population
to obtain meat.
The falcon is an integral part of Saudi folklore, about
which poems were written and legends were spun. Its
use in hunting is a physical exercise. It is intelligent and
beautiful and lends itself to training. The ideal length
of a falcon in Saudi Arabia from head to tail is a man
arm’s length from his finger nails to his elbow. The other
characteristics of good birds of prey have to do with wide
chests, soft feathers, piercing sight, and long, strong wings
that enable them to fly at amazing speed, particularly
against the wind. The price of a bird of this type ranges
between ten and twenty thousand Dollars.
Falcons are hard to come by. But they can be speedily
domesticated, habituated to various changes. They can
be trained, within between ten days and several weeks,
depending on their type. Their hunting and training need
a lot of time and patience, expertise and innovations,
as well as knowledge of the propensities of this type of
birds. Falcon hunters do not collect them from nests,
which is a lot easier, but prefer to hunt the young ones
whose individual character has been formed and which
have been separated from the swarm. Although this may
seem strange, but the required bird must necessarily be a
female bird, as it has been observed that female falcons
have the necessary qualities for hunting, and they alone
are considered full-fledged falcons. The size of the male
falcon is usually one third that of the female. In the past,
bedouins were not concerned with the sex of these birds.
112
Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia
Seen by a Diplomat’s
Spouse
They used to select them on the basis of their abilities and
skills in hunting. This has always been the case, but until
now when bedouins are certain that the bird they have is
a female, they would call it by a male name. Thus the
female falcons have earned the names of the male falcons
in view of their masculine characteristics.
There are several traditional methods for hunting
falcons. Thus in the past, a cage would be made of very
thin sticks. Today, it is made of very thin metal wires
round which are tied a number of knots. A pigeon is put
inside the cage as a bait, upon which the winged hunter
swoops on its prey and digs its curved claws therein. At
this moment no big effort is needed to capture it. Pigeons
are sometimes used by tying them to invisible nets that
are tens of meters long which are fixed to the ground.
The poor victim would flutter its wings in an attempt to
escape. This, obviously, draws the attention of the hunter
bird, which, in turn, falls into the trap and is then captured
by the hunters.
After the falcon has been trapped and is considered
by the expert hunter suitable for training, a leather veil
that covers its eyes is put over its head. In some cases its
eyelids are carefully sewn with a thin string and it is kept
indoors for three to four days. This does not in any way
affect its piercing sight, but quiets it down. During the
training period, the falcon is not allowed to sleep at night,
and every now and then it is offered a piece of meat. In
the process of training, domestication and preparation of
the falcon for hunting, the “falconer” needs several things
that are necessary, including a leather glove that is worn