A History of Agriculture in India v2.c69.s2.14

v2.c69.s2.14

'Another is a deer (kiyik) after the fashion of the male deer (airkākī hūna) of the jīrān. Its back is black, its belly white, its horns longer than the hūna's, but more crooked. The Hindustani calls it kalahara, a word which may have been originally kala-haran, black-buck, and which has been softened in pronunciation to kalahara. The doe is light-coloured (Fig.27). By means of this kalahara people catch deer; they fasten a noose on its horns, hang a stone as large as a ball on one of its feet, so as to keep it from getting far away after it has brought about the capture of a deer, and set it opposite wild deer when these are seen. As these (kalahara) deer are singularly combative, advance to fight is made at once. The two deer strike with their horns and push one another backwards and forwards, during which the wild one's horns become entangled in the net that is fast to the tame one's. If the wild one would run away, the tame one does not go; it is impeded also by the stone on its foot. People take many deer in this way; after capture they tame them and use them in their turn to take others; they also set them to fight at home; the deer fight very well.