SERIES: Pictorial History of the Sports and Pastimes of All Nations
SCENES: Begging, bathing, falconry
SIZE: 3" x 5"
ARTIST: Not signed, but reportedly Frances Brundage
DATE: 1893
LITHOGRAPHER: Kaufman & Strauss
CONDITION: Very good, I'd say. This card is generally only lightly soiled, but there is a small transparent stain just above the falconer's head, also visible on the back. The edges are slightly worn and there are small creases at both bottom corners. There's also a short, mild crease at the bottom edge near the end of the "Persia" caption.. (Please see scans.)
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REVERSE TEXT: PERSIA.
THE Persians of to-day are not as warlike as their ancestors were, but love pleasure equally as well. Their climate is most charming and one seldom needs to be immured within doors.
Hawking is the chief sport of the country gentlemen. A nobleman often rides abroad with a falcon on his wrist. The right hand is covered with a glove. The hawk is taught to perch upon the wrist, and is held by small leather thongs noosed around its legs The party ride over fields promiscuously, and as a quail or other bird is started, the hawk is let fly and darts in an instant on his prey, grasps it in his claws and begins to devour it, but a servant gallops up, seizes the game, and throws merely the heart to the hawk. When the hawk fails of taking the game, he flies away in apparent mortification. But a small bell attached to his legs reveals his retreat. He is lured back by throwing up a chicken kept ready for the purpose, this attracts the hawk, and when he begins feeding on the bait he is easily retaken.
A common mode of antelope-hunting, as pursued in Persia, is with hawks and dogs. Two hawks are flown while that game is still at a great distance. Guided by their keen scent, they soon reach the deer and harrass it by striking at its head. This annoys and interrupts the flight of the animal so effectually that the dogs are enabled to come up, soon followed by the hunters.
Among the peasantry, buffalo-fighting finds the greatest of favor. The Persians have a trick of making them drink to excite their pugnacity, for these buffalos are peaceable brutes by nature.
The bath is a never-failing source of delight and a joyous place of meeting to the Persians of cities, as a rule, these baths are fitted up luxuriously.
The mendicants of Persia are picturesque wanderers, who generally find monkeys useful in coaxing alms.
