246 



FOWLS. 



Chap. VII. 



Malayan or Indian variety of G. banMva. If so, this species 

 has varied greatly since it was first domesticated ; but there has 

 been ample time, as we shall now show. 



History of the Fowl— Biitimeyer found no remains of the 

 fowl in the ancient Swiss lake-dwellings. It is not men- 

 tioned r u in the. Old Testament; nor is it figured on the ancient 

 Egyptian monuments. 33 It is not referred to by Homer or Hesiod 

 (about 900 B.C.) ; but is mentioned by Theognis and Aristo- 

 phanes between 400 and 500 B.C. It is figured on some of the 

 Babylonian cylinders, of which Mr. Layard sent me an impres- 

 sion, between the sixth and seventh centuries B.C. ; and on the 

 Harpy Tomb in Lycia, about 600 B.C. : so that we may feel pretty 

 confident that the fowl reached Europe somewhere near the 

 sixth century B.C. It had travelled still farther westward by the 

 time of the Christian era, for it was found in Britain by Julius 

 Csesar. In India it must have been domesticated when the 

 Institutes of Manu were written, that is, according to Sir W. 

 Jones, 1200 B.C., but, according to the later authority of Mr. H. 

 Wilson, only 800 B.C., for the domestic fowl is forbidden, whilst 

 the wild is permitted to be eaten. If, as before remarked, we 

 may trust the old Chinese Encyclopaedia, the fowl must have 

 been domesticated several centuries earlier, as it is said to have 

 been introduced from the West into China 1400 B.C. 



Sufficient materials do not exist for tracing the history of the 

 separate breeds. About the commencement of the Christian era, 



33 Dr. Pickering, inhis 'Eaces of Man,' 

 1850, p. 374, says that the head and neck 

 of a fowl is carried in a Tribute-pro- 

 cession to Thoutmousis III. (1445 B.C.) ; 

 but Mr. Birch of the British Museum 

 doubts whether the figure can be iden- 

 tified as the head of a fowl. Some 

 caution is necessary with reference to 

 the absence of figures of the fowl 

 on the ancient Egyptian monuments, 

 on account of the strong and widely 

 prevalent prejudice against this bird. 

 I am informed by the Kev. S. Erhardt 

 that on the east coast of Africa, from 

 4° to 6° south of the equator, most of 

 the pagan tribes at the present day 

 hold the fowl in aversion. The natives 

 of the Pellew Islands would not eat 



the fowl, nor will the Indians in 

 some parts of S. America. For the 

 ancient history of the fowl, see also 

 Volz, ' Beitrage zur Culturgeschichte,' 

 1852, s. 77; and Isid. Geoffroy St. 

 Hilaire, 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' torn. hi. p. 

 61. Mr. Crawfurd has given an admir- 

 able history of the fowl in his paper 

 ' On the Belation of Domesticated Ani- 

 mals to Civilisation,' read before the 

 Brit. Assoc, at Oxford in 1860, and 

 since printed separately. I quote from 

 him on the Greek poet Theognis, and 

 on the Harpy Tomb described by Sir C. 

 Fellowes. I quote from a letter of Mr. 

 Blyth's with respect to the Institutes of 

 Manu. 



