Genghis Khan and his Pet Hawk

Genghis Khan carried his favorite hawk on his wrist. It was trained to help hunt. On command, the hawk would fly up into the air and soar in the sky searching for prey

On one trip, Khan was very thirsty. His hawk was flying overhead. Being hot, the springs were pretty dry but he spotted water trickling down some rocks. Leaving his horse, Genghis Khan took his silver cup from his hunting bag and began to slowly gather the water into his cup. It took a while. Just as he was about to place the cup to his lips, his hawk swooped down and knocked the cup from his hands, the water spilling to the ground. Angry, Khan repeated his attempt to get some drinking water as his hawk watched perched on the rocks above near where the spring was located. Again, it took a while as the water trickled into his cup. When a very thirsty Khan placed his lips to this second cup of water, his hawk once again, swooped down knocking the water cup to the ground. Khan was furious at his hawk and threatened to kill his pet hawk if he did it again. On the third attempt to get a drink of water, the hawk came down, but this time, Genghis Khan was expecting him and drew his sword. His pet hawk fell to the ground dead.

Unfortunately, the cup fell between the rocks and Khan couldn’t reach it. With nothing to catch the water, he decided to climb the rocks to the source of the water and use his hands to gather some drinking water. On finding the pool of water, he spotted a huge dead snake lying in the water. It was a extremely poisonous snake which had polluted the drinking water!

Khan realized that his hawk had been trying to help him! It had saved his life. Sadly, Khan realized he’d lost his pet hawk in anger. He said that he’d learned a valuable lesson that day....never do anything in anger.

Sources where I found this story:

http:// www.answers.com/topic/hoelun

http://www.salizah.com/genghiskhanandhishawk.html story

http://inspirationalstories.com/1/167.html

http://www.webedelic.com/church/hawk.pdf