INDIAN PEAFOWL i8i 



broth and give the remainder to persons suffering from snake-bites to drink, as also 

 to make these animals lick the parts stung by the snakes. The flesh of the peafowl and 

 mongoose has also been recommended as a diet helping to counteract the effects of 

 snake venom. For some years, till some months back, I had with me four mongoose, 

 two Indian and two Ceylonese, and while they were here the snakes made themselves 

 very scarce indeed in the whole neighbourhood, although we had plenty of them before. 

 Since I lost the mongoose, snakes have been re-appearing. In my Balangoda house 

 I once had seven peafowls at one time. My garden there is a very old one, thickly 

 w^ooded, with an old 'galweta' running round it. This old-fashioned 'galweta' formed 

 a very commodious and delightful abode for snake-kind, and plenty of them lived there. 

 Hardly a week passed without somebody reporting that he came across a cobra or a 

 polonga. But some time after the peafowls had been brought in, these reports began 

 to get scarce, and some months after they ceased altogether. Evidently the snakes, 

 not liking the invasion of their territory by their hereditary foes, the peafowls, migrated 

 or else were eaten up to extermination by the feathered invaders ; as if once more in 

 illustration of the truth of that law of nature — the survival of the fittest. But this 

 was only for a brief period. True, the peafowl reigned supreme, but no sooner had 

 they disappeared by death and other natural and also unnatural causes, than the 

 serpents lost no time in reasserting their rights ; and now they are comfortably 

 domiciled once more in their old domains. Does this, too, illustrate some great truth, 

 I wonder?" 



Peafowl figure largely in medicine. Singhalese pharmacopoeia recognizes the fat 

 of this bird as a cure for rheumatism, sprains and dislocations. The eye, or ocellus, 

 in the train is considered to be an excellent antidote against rat-bite. The feather 

 must be wrapped in a piece of dried plantain leaf, cigarette-like, and the smoke 

 inhaled three times— once in the morning, in the evening, and finally on the following 

 morning, the venom then being counteracted. These ocellated feathers are also used 

 for ophthalmic diseases. The crest of the bird, ground to powder and swallowed, 

 produces some healthful effect, the exact nature of which I could not ascertain. 



In the Satpura Hills the native Bhils are divided into more than forty clans, 

 each symbolized by some natural object, organic or inorganic. The Mori clan takes 

 its name from Mor, their Peacock token. These people never molest the bird. When 

 they wish to worship it, they go into the jungle and search for its tracks. To these 

 they salaam, carefully clean the ground all around, and laying down a bit of red 

 cloth, they leave on it an offering of grain. In the earth alongside they draw a 

 swastika. If a member of the Moris sets his foot upon the track of a Peacock, he 

 expects to suffer from some disease as a result. At a wedding, a little effigy of the bird 

 is worshipped. If a woman of this clan should chance to see a Peacock, she must turn 

 away at once or else veil her face. 



The Singhalese have a pleasing little legend, which tells how the Ground Thrush, 

 or Pitta, once possessed the plumes of the Peacock. One day when bathing, the 

 Peacock stole its dress, and ever since the disconsolate Pitta wanders through the 

 jungle, calling for its lost garments— ^j^/7/^;;^ ./ ayittam ! (my dress ! my dress !). 



Whether true or not, the natives of all the countries inhabited by Peafowl firmly 

 believe that the birds are the favourite food of tigers and leopards, and that these 



