TURKEYS* 
289 
At table, they were never introduced, except on tbe most 
important and magnificent occasions ; and he who carved 
them was considered as honoured in the highest degree. 
The feathers from the tail of the Peacock were formed by 
the ladies of quality into a crown, for the purpose of de- 
; corating their favourite troubadours or minstrels. The eyes 
were considered to represent the attention of the whole 
world as fixed upon them. And in those days of chivalry, 
so constantly was the Peacock the object of the solemn vows 
of the knights, that its image was hung up in the place 
where they exercised themselves in the management of their 
horses and weapons ; and before it, when roasted and dressed 
in its plumage, and placed, with great pomp and ceremony, 
as the top dish, at the most splendid feasts, all the guests, 
male and female, took a solemn vow : the knights vowing 
bravery, — the ladies engaging to be loving and faithful. It 
was, no doubt, in consequence of this veneration, that Queen 
Elizabeth chose to have her picture taken in a gorgeous robe, 
covered with Peacock’s eyes. 
If we are indebted to India for the Peacock (where, in 
their wild state, they fly in coveys, glittering in the sun, or 
maybe seen roosting in trees, in such numbers that an author 
describes them as almost hiding the foliage with their 
plumage), and to the Eastern countries for our pheasants, we 
have to thank the ISTew World for that more homely, but 
more useful bird, the Turkey, 
which, there is reason to believe, 
was never known in Europe 
till about three hundred years 
ago, when it was imported from 
America; but which has now 
been so widely spread, that in 
some places, as, for instance, in 
the neighbourhood of the Black 
Sea, # they have nearly returned 
to their originally wild state; Turkey. 
* See Clarke’s Travels , vol. ii. 
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