Bīrūnī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, Alberuni's India (v. 1)

(London :  Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co.,  1910.)

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  Page 195  



CHAPTER XVII.                            195

I myself have witnessed that in hunting gazelles they Hunting
caught them with the hand. One Hindu even went so
far as to assert that he, without catching the gazelle,
would drive it before him and lead it straight into the
kitchen. This, however, rests, as I believe I have found
out, simply on the device of slowly and constantly
accustoming the animals to one and the same melody.
Our people, too, practise the same when hunting the
ibex, which is more wild even than the gazelle. When ■
they see the animals resting, they begin to walk round
them in a circle, singing one and the same melody so
long until the animals are accustomed to it. Then
they make the circle more and more narrow, till at last
they come near enough to shoot at the animals which
lie there in perfect rest.

The shooters of Kata-birds have a custom of beating
copper-vessels during the night with one and the same
kind of beat, and they manage to catch them with the
hand. If, however, the beat is changed, the birds fly
off in all directions.

All these things are peculiar customs which have
nothing whatsoever to do with charms.    Sometimes the page 96.
Hindus are considered as  sorcerers because of their
playing with balls on raised beams or on tight ropes,
but tricks of this kind are common to all nations.
  Page 195