THE TURKEY. 3 



origin of the bird itself, in which is shown how it is a 

 native of Mexico, and was introduced into Europe by the 

 expedition of Cortez to the New World, and called by his 

 followers the "American" or "Mexican" peacock, from 

 its habit of strutting. 



Strange, then, how the bird came to be called turkey, a 

 word in no way similar to the Anglo-Saxon pawa, the Ger- 

 man pfau, the French paon or the Latin paw, all names 

 similar to one another and derived from the Latin, the bird 

 having been brought from the East by the Romans. The 

 mystery then is how, in view of all these facts, the name 

 "turkey" came to be applied to this bird. It is obvious 

 that we must look to some other language for a solution of 

 the problem. Going to the far-off home of the peacock, we 

 find in the Tamil language of India, a word toka, peacock, 

 the primitive meaning of which refers to a train or trail- 

 ing skirt. This word, adopted into the Hebrew language, 

 becomes tukki, and by a slight change by the genius of the 

 English language, becomes what we are looking for, turkey. 



But, it is asked, How came it through the Hebrew ? Let 

 it be said, then, that at the time of the expedition of Cor- 

 tez to Mexico, the despised and persecuted Jews were very 

 numerous in Spain, and engaged, as they usually are, by 

 their natural adaptability for gain, in merchandising. 

 Their acuteness led them to deal in foreign birds, and curi- 

 osities and rarities, by which they reaped large profits, as 

 these things were only purchased by the rich. Naturally, 

 then, they saw in this new importation an opportunity for 

 gain, which they seized, and as they used their own lan- 

 guage as much as possible, it was not long before the He- 

 brew name for peacock became well known. Doubtless they 

 designated . it as the "American" peacock, for it was well 

 known from whence it came. Thus it would be that the 

 word tuJcJci would constantly be heard in the market places, 

 while the more scientific name of pavo would only be heard 

 among the educated few, and so by force of numbers the 



