i8o A MONOGRAPH OF THE PHEASANTS 



preserved at Christiania, there was found among his armour and weapons a small 

 bundle of peacock plumes. Although more than eight centuries have passed, their 

 metallic surfaces are still brilliant. Aside from the part it has played in the art and 

 literature of the Chinese, the eyed feathers have long been used as an order granted as 

 reward of merit to mandarins. In spite of the widespread notion, these indicate neither 

 office nor rank, the nine grades of mandarins being distinguished by the colour of the 

 button on their caps. In Russia, on the other hand, the peacock feather is often a part 

 of the head-dress of a servant or peasant. 



Besides being the bird of Juno, the early Christians adopted it as the symbol of 

 immortality, as the phoenix stood for the resurrection. It was also a symbol of the 

 Supreme Father, and as such was embroidered on the vestments of Catholic ecclesiastics. 

 This idea seems to be carried out in the very name of the Peacock. In the erchaic P's, 

 one finds the earliest like an inverted J with the crook not closed — a shepherd's crook 

 in fact, the emblem of the shepherd or father. Pa, according to Max Miiller, means to 

 protect or nourish, and is the root of the Greek and Latin /a/^n Hence we have pidar 

 and pitar in Persian and Sanscrit respectively, and padre, vater, p'ere, papa, etc., in 

 modern languages. The French paon stands for Father-Sun, and if we omit the 

 unimportant cock and hen suffixes, we have pea or pi, the Father. 



In travelling through the East, one constantly encounters strange superstitions 

 which the natives entertain concerning Peafowl. A well-educated Singhalese of high 

 rank contributes the following, which I quote verbatim, and which may stand as a 

 type of modern beliefs. 



"Perhaps it is little known that the peafowl among the feathered tribe, just as 

 the mongoose among the quadrupeds, is one of the most deadly foes of the snake. 

 Ukkussa and Kurulugoya are also destroyers of serpents, but the peacock is considered 

 to be the deadliest and most formidable enemy. The bill of the peafowl is held in 

 great esteem by many as a sure cure for snake poison. The wild boar and the iguana, 

 too, wage war with serpents and eat them. It is common knowledge that the cry of 

 the peacock addles snake-eggs, just as the scent of the 'eramudu' flow^er makes almost 

 all kinds of serpents betake themselves to water, and for some time lead a sort of 

 semi-aquatic life. I have observed that the peafowl (also the mongoose) has some 

 hypnotic influence over serpents. When a snake sees a peafowl or a mongoose, it will 

 not try to avoid, hide or escape, although it has the opportunity ; but, on the contrary, 

 it will prop up its head and steadily gaze on at the foe as if fascinated or petrified for 

 some time, and then will by degrees droop its head till it touches the ground, and 

 then lie fully stretched out, as if dead. This state in Singhalese is called 'depene- 

 wetima,' which is mesmerism, hypnotism or intense fascination. It is difficult to say 

 whether, to bring on this state of morbid drowsiness in the snake, it is necessary that 

 the peafowl or the mongoose should also see it ; or if merely their being seen by the 

 former — the snake — alone would produce the effect. It would be very interesting to 

 ascertain this fact, if possible. The cat, too, has some such influence over snakes, 

 perhaps in a smaller degree. A snake-bite would not kill a cat, provided it is bitten 

 where it could conveniently keep on licking. This points to the fact that the saliva of 

 the cat, as has been pointed out by the ancients, has some neutralizing effect on snake 

 venom. In Ayurvedic medical books it is advised to make cats or mongoose lap meat 



