TURKEYS. 289 



At table, they were never introduced, except on the most 

 important and magnificent occasions ; and he who carved 

 them was considered as honoured in the highest degree. 

 The feathers from the tail of the Peacock were formed by 

 the ladies of quality into a crown, for the purpose of de- 

 corating their favourite troubadours or minstrels. The eyes 

 were considered to represent the attention of the whole 

 world as fixed upon them. And in those days of chivalry, 

 so constantly was the Peacock the object of the solemn vows 

 of the knights, that its image was hung up in the place 

 where they exercised themselves in the management of their 

 horses and weapons ; and before it, when roasted and dressed 

 in its plumage, and placed, with great pomp and ceremony, 

 as the top dish, at the most splendid feasts, all the guests, 

 male and female, took a solemn vow : the knights vowing 

 bravery, the ladies engaging to be loving and faithful. It 

 was, no doubt, in consequence of this veneration, that Queen 

 Elizabeth chose to have her picture taken in a gorgeous robe, 

 covered with Peacock's eyes. 



If we are indebted to India for the Peacock (where, in 

 their wild state, they fly in coveys, glittering in the sun, or 

 may be seen roosting in trees, in such numbers that an author 

 describes them as almost hiding the foliage with their 

 plumage), and to the Eastern countries for our pheasants, we 

 have to thank the New World for that more homely, but 

 more useful bird, the Turkey, 

 which, there is reason to believe, 

 was never known in Europe 

 till about three hundred years 

 ago, when it was imported from 

 America; but which has now 

 been so widely spread, that in 

 some places, as, for instance, in 

 the neighbourhood of the Black 

 Sea,* they have nearly returned 

 to their originally wild state; Turkey. 



* See CLARKE'S Travels, vol. ii. 



