6 THE DOMESTIC FOWL. 



translation of the book of Proverbs, (xxx. 31,) which 

 is lost in the authorised version. There is another 

 equally disputable passage in Eoclesiastes, xii. 4. 

 " And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the 

 sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at 

 the voice of the bird, (that is, at cock-crowing,) and all 

 the daughters of music shall be brought low." A still 

 less certain evidence occurs in the book of Job, xxxvm. 

 36. " "Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts ? or 

 who hath given understanding to the heart ?" 



The apparent omission of the name of the domestic 

 fowl from the Old Testament may possibly have arisen 

 from this cause, namely, that tending them would be 

 the occupation of women, whose domestic employments 

 are less prominently brought forward by oriental 

 writers than the active enterprises of men ; and, also, 

 that the birds specially named there are the unclean 

 birds, which are to be avoided, whereas those which 

 may be eaten are classed in a lump as " clean." See 

 Leviticus, xi. 13, and Deuteronomy, xiv. 11. 



That the fowl was domesticated and extensively 

 spread at a very remote period, is very evident; but 

 it does not seem clear whether it was possessed by the 

 Israelites before the consolidation of the nation under 

 Solomon, when commerce began to flourish, and the 

 arts of life to be strenuously cultivated. After the 

 Babylonish captivity, we cannot doubt that the fowl 

 was among the domestic animals of Palestine, and it 

 is to this bird, most probablyj. that Neherniah, (b.c. 

 445,) alludes, when in his rebuke he says, " Now that 

 which was prepared for me daily was one ox, and six 

 choice sheep, also fowls were prepared for me, and also 

 once in ten days, store of all sorts of wine" (v. 18). 

 Antecedently to this period, the fowl was abundant in 

 Persia. Thus Peisthetserus relates why the eook is 

 called the " Persian bird," and how it reigned over 

 that country before Darius and Megabazus (b.c. 521). 

 Not only do the classic poets and historians speak of 

 'he high antiquity of the fowl, but, medals and coins 



