THE TURKEY. 137 



1528, petitioned against hops as a wicked weed. Beer 

 was licensed for exportation by Henr^ the Seventh, in 

 1492, and an excise on bear existed as early as 1284. 

 also in the reign of Edward the First." 



About the year 1524, then, it would appear, the tur- 

 key was introduced into England, but whether from 

 Spain, or direct from America, we have no means of 

 knowing. Neither can we exactly discover at what 

 period France and Germany received it, but most 

 probably at about the same time as England. Every- 

 where its intrinsic value would make it acceptable, 

 and cause it to be treated with the most careful 

 attention. 



The dispersion of the turkey is not, however, so com- 

 plete as that of the common fowl. In India, Col. Sykes 

 informs us that it is reared in great numbers by the 

 Portuguese, and that it is met with only in a domestic 

 state. "We cannot learn that it is reared in China, 

 where the fowl and duck abound, nor does it appear 

 to have a place among the domestic birds of Persia, 

 though in Kitto's account of Palestine, both the turkey 

 and the peacock are mentioned. There is a story told 

 in a work called the " Sketches of Persia," which runs 

 to the following effect : When two English gentlemen, 

 who were on their way to the city of Shiraz, arrived at 

 the town of Kazeroon, they heard so strange an ac- 

 count of two remarkable creatures that were to be 

 seen at a village fifteen miles distant, that they deter- 

 mined to go and see them. " They are very like birds," 

 said their informants, " for they have feathers and two 

 legs ; but then, their head is bare and has a fleshy look, 

 and one of them has a long black beard upon his 

 breast ; but the chief point on which they dwelt, was 

 the strangeness of their voice, unlike that of any other 

 bird they have ever heard or seen. An old man, who 

 had gone all the way from Kazeroon to see them, said 

 that the sound was very much like that of the Arabic 

 language, but added, that though he had listened to them 

 with the greatest attention, he had not been able to 



