CHAPTER XXXIV. 



THE PEA-FOWL. 



If the references to the peacock in the two parallel passages of Scripture, i Kings x. 22 and 

 2 Chron. ix. 21, are correct translations of the Hebrew word Tnkiyyim, the bird has been known 

 from the earliest times ; and the decision of this question invests the Pea-fowl with an historical and 

 geoo-raphical interest, greater perhaps than can be attached to any other bird, since upon it almost 

 exclusively depends the further question as to the aim and extent of Solomon's voyages, and the 

 locality of that Ophir to which in other places they are said to have been directed. That Ophir is 

 identical with the country from which the various products named in these verses were obtained 

 may almost be assumed, and as every one of these except the Tilkiyylm could have been obtained 

 from either Arabia, Africa, or India, the whole of this interesting question almost entirely depends 

 upon what creature is meant by the Hebrew word. Apart from this all is doubtful, for even the 

 extraordinary supposition (made to account for the length of the three years' voyage) that the fleet 

 went southward from the Red Sea, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and finally reached Spain, is 

 not so wild as may appear when taken in conjunction with the statement of Herodotus, that 

 the King of Egypt known in Scripture as Pharaoh Necho despatched vessels manned by 

 Phoenicians three centuries later, which performed this very voyage. It is true Herodotus himself 

 discredits this account ; but as he does so solely on the ground that these mariners affirmed " they 

 had the sun on their right hand " after having sailed round Libya, which he considered ridiculous 

 " romancing," whereas we now know what the old astronomers were ignorant of, that this was 

 exactly what would happen after crossing the Line, his very objection makes the truth of the 

 narrative almost absolutely certain ; and it may be argued with much plausibility, that Necho 

 probably directed this voyage from reports of the former successful expeditions by Solomon three 

 hundred years before. 



In that case, however, it is most diflicult to conceive what can be intended by the Tukiyyim. 

 The word, it is true, has been "supposed by Hebrew scholars to be derived from a foreign root, 

 signifying " tufted," or " crested ;" and although the peacock is crested, the crest is far from being 

 so conspicuous a characteristic as the gorgeous plumes. Hence a crested parrot has been 

 conjectured ; but it does not appear that the ancients were acquainted with parrots, and much less 

 with any crested parrot, till long after. In fact parrots do not appear to have been known till the 

 time of Alexander, and even then the varieties we find traces of were non-crested birds imported 

 from Ceylon. The pheasant has also been supposed, but the only species of this genus known to 

 the ancien::' was also without crest ; and if we are to go eastward lor a crested species, we may much 

 better accept the peacock at once. In fact, supposing an African Ophir at all, the only bird which 

 could possibly satisfy such a derivation of Tukiyyim, would be one we have never yet seen suggested 

 by any biblical scholar — the Guinea fowl, of which the crest of feathers on some varieties, and the 

 bony casque on others, might be suggested as giving rise to it. This indeed offers, in our opinion, 

 the only tenable alternative supposing the peacock to be rejected ; but it is open to the grave and, 



