GiassIR  .PALOANL TRY, '&ce. 
diftinguifhed him from all the princes of his time. 
élian* relates, that they were brought into Greece 
from fome barbarous country; and that they were 
held in fuch hich efteem, that a male and female 
were valued at Athens at 1000 drachme, or 321. 
5s. 10d. Their next ftep might be to Samos; 
where they were preferved about the temple of Fumo, 
being the birds facred to the goddefs +: and Gellius 
in his noées Attice, c. 16. commends the excéllen- 
cy of the Samian peacocks. It is therefore probable 
that they were brought here originally for the 
purpofes of fuperftition, and afterwards cultivated 
for the ufes of luxury. We are alfo told, when 
Alexander was in India t, he found vaft numbers of 
wild ones on the banks of the Ayarotis, and was 
fo {truck with their beauty, as to appoint a fevere 
punifhment on any perfon that killed them. 
Peacocks’ crefts, in antient times, were among 
the ornaments of the Kings of Exgland. LErnald de 
Aclent fined to King Fobn in a hundred and forty 
palfries, with fackbuts, lorains, gilt fpurs and 
peacocks’ crefts, fuch as would be for his credit. 
Maddox Antiq. Exch .1. 273. 
Our common poultry came originally from Per- 
fia and India. Ariftophanes || calls the cock segouds 
tons, the Perfian bird; and tells us, it enjoyed 
* Lilian de nat. an. lib. vy. 21. 
t+ Atheneus. lib. xiv. p. 655. 
t Q. Curtius. lib, ix. || Aves, kin. 483. 
that 
“49 
PouLTRY. 
