A GUIDE FOR KEEPERS OF POULTRY 273. 
after him, gave the cock a high place as the herald of the 
dawn and the guardian of light and the sun. On the 
tombs of the Harpies in Lycia, now in the British mu- 
seum, is a figure of a god to whom a cock is being offered 
as a sacrifice. This would indicate that domestic fowls 
were known in the \Vest before the Persians became 
world-conquerors under Cyrus the Great. On the other 
hand, it seems impossible that the Lycians were ac- 
quainted with the domestic fowl and that the Grecians 
were not, yet that they were not is evidenced by the fact 
that Homer does not mention them, nor is there any men- 
tion of them by his contemporaries or followers. Surely 
if the domestic cock had been known in those days, when 
clocks were unknown, his regularity in greeting the com- 
ing of morn would have appealed to the poetic souls of 
the nature-loving Greeks and he would have had mention 
if not much praise. 
The earliest authentic mention of domestic fowls in 
western literature is found in the writings of Aristo- 
phanes, who died about 400 years before the beginning 
of our era. Nowhere in the Old Testament is there any 
reference to domestic fowls but there are mentions in 
the New Testament where reference is made to the hen 
that gathers her brood under her wings and in the crow- 
ing of the cock the night before the crucifixion. It is 
probable, therefore, that during the time between the 
writing of the last book of the Old Testament and the 
advent of Christ we may place the introduction of fowls 
into the countries of western Asia and probably eastern 
Europe. 
While domestic fowls were slowly making their way 
westward there is no doubt that they were known in 
China centuries before western nations were acquainted 
