[Illustration: Fig. 153.--"How to bathe a New Falcon."--Fac-simile of a
Miniature in the Manuscript of "Livre du Roy Modus" (Fourteenth Century).]
Falconry, like venery, had a distinctive and professional vocabulary,
which it was necessary for every one who joined in hawking to understand,
unless he wished to be looked upon as an ignorant yeoman. "Flying the hawk
is a royal pastime," says the Jesuit Claude Binet, "and it is to talk
royally to talk of the flight of birds. Every one speaks of it, but few
speak well. Many speak so ignorantly as to excite pity among their
hearers. Sometimes one says the _hand_ of the bird instead of saying the
_talon_, sometimes the _talon_ instead of the _claw_, sometimes the _claw_
instead of the _nail_" &c.
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