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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Another word that seems a propos here is seel, used in falconry, meaning to sew the bird's eyes shut. Shakespeare used it metaphorically a number of times, as in this quote from Othello:
She that, so young, could give out such a seeming,
To seel her father's eyes up close as oak--
Apparently there's no semantic link with seal, although they are, to a degree, synonyms here. I'd say Father Steve's guy, with the leather hood, has the more humane approach. I'm relieved to hear he got off.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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In the 1700's in England, ferrets' mouths would be sewn shut in order to employ them to flush rabbits our of their holes in order that they might be shot for food, while preventing the ferret from biting the rabbit and spoiling the meat.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I am traumatized. Padre, how could the ferret eat then? I can't imagine they sewed and unsewed him everyday. Slithy...why would they sew a falcon's eyes shut? 
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 320
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2002
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Cruelty--that's for sure, at least by our contemporary standards. Apparently the falcon's eyesight is so keen that it inhibits the establishing of a close relationship between the bird and its trainer. Here's a site that has more details: http://www.arab-heritage.com/falconry.htmAn interesting bit of info I found while checking this out: the leather hood now used on the falcon is called a burgah, which is another form of burqa. Talk about being covered.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear belMarduk: A ferret was such a prized possession, you can be sure the sewing was temporary. My father once owned one, and earned a good bit of pocket money having his ferret flush rats out of barns, until some excited idiot stabbed it with a pitchfork.
The falconry site mentioned keeping hood constantly on very young falcon, until it got so tame it was not likely to just fly away and not return. Sewing the eyelids shut must have been quite a trick considering how crude their needles and threads must have been.
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In googling I stumbled upon http://www.blackegg.com/1SwellFoop-backstage.html -- which matches only because "SwellFoop" is used only in the URL. Nonetheless, the spoonerism in the second paragraph is too exquisite not to mention.
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