IX 



THE GALLINACEOUS TRIBES 



I. Ix An'cient Times 



When did poultry bect)me domestic animals ? 

 Probably before they were brought from Asia. 

 At all events it is from Asia, and especially from 

 her vast plains — which still hide so many of 

 Nature's secrets — that our gallinaceous tribes 

 have come. The dog and the cock were, 

 according to Zoro- 

 aster, sacred ani- 

 mals, — one as the 

 guardian of the 

 house and hearth, 

 the other as the 

 herald of the dawn 

 and thus the symbol 

 of light and the sun. 

 Consequently we 

 find Idomeneus and 

 Pasiphac, descend- 

 ants of the Sun, 

 bearing the image of 

 a cock upon their 

 shields. In later 

 times the cock has 

 remained the symbol 

 of vigilance and of 



Mr. Cock. 



music. In German\' the cock is actuall)- a 

 weathercock on the steeples of Catholic 

 churches ; whereas that on the Lutheran 

 steeples is a swan. 



The cock must have appeared in Greece 

 about the middle of the second century B.C., 

 reaching other parts of Europe in the next 



century, but not be- 

 fore. Saint Peter 

 had good cause to 

 know of it in the 

 first century ..\.D. ; 

 and in the fourth 

 century the monas- 

 teries began to apply 

 themselves gener- 

 ally to the breeding 

 of poultry. Bishop 

 Martin sent great 

 numbers from Italy 

 into France and Ger- 

 many, where, after a 

 while, the peasantry 

 were allowed to pay 

 their taxes in poul- 

 try and eggs, a fact 

 which greatly 



knowledge. How 



many interpretations have been given of its favored the propagation of fowls. 



crow ! It is said to indicate the place of buried 



treasure. Black cocks are in communion with 



the Evil Spirit ; they addle eggs, they predict 



ill luck, they tell people's fortunes by pecking 



grain, with which they form letters and words 



— an art that was called alectryomancy, in 



honor of one of the three Furies, who presided 



over the performance. To this day in Bohemia 



and Silesia the peasants tie a black cock to 



II. Poultry in Europe .wd in Americ.\ 



It was inevitable that the raising of poultry 

 should excite the interest of farmers through- 

 out Europe. Countries like France, Belgium, 

 and Denmark have from this source within a 

 few years annually increased the national 

 wealth by several millions. Italy, Hungary, 

 and Russia are the countries that supply Eng- 



a tree, round which they dance ; and if a mar- land, France, Germany, Belgium, and the 



riage is contracted during Lent they solemnly Netherlands with what they lack. If we read 



tie a cock in a chair, put a red cap on its head, statistics we are amazed at the enormous quan- 



decapitate it, and eat it to the strains of funereal tity of eggs sent from the East to the West ; 



