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Pea-fowls are seen in great abundance on these hills. They are both fed and worshipped by the mendicant priests, who are much annoyed if you disturb or shoot them, which, notwithstanding that, Europeans take the liberty of doing, wherever they can find them. These birds are, while young, as delicious as a young turkey.
"Oh, thou, whose teeth enamelled vie With smiling Cunda's pearly ray, Hear how the peacock's amorous cry Salutes the dark and cloudy day." And again, where he is describing the same season: "When smiling forests, whence the tuneful cries Of clustering pea-fowls shrill and frequent rise, Teach tender feelings to each human breast, And please alike the happy or distressed."
The sacred books of the Singhalese are even now inscribed on silver plates, particularised by Jeremiah as an export of Tarshish. Apes and pea-fowls are still found in great numbers, while ivory must at that time have been even more abundant than at present.
Many tribes, never brought in contact with each other, seem to have originated the idea among themselves. Experiences between Colombo and Point de Galle. Dangers of Encountering Reptiles. Marvelous Ant Houses. Insect Architects. Curious Bird's Nests. Flamingoes at Rest. Variety of the Crane Family. Wild Pea-Fowls. Buddha's Prohibition. Mingling of Fruit and Timber Trees. Fatal Parasitic Vines.
Near the entrance was a large, fine building used by visitors as a resting-place, and for refreshments. Mrs. Steiner did not pass it by, but the four went in and she bought a supply of cake as a supplement to their light dinner. Then they went to see the splendid crested pea-fowls that were spreading their brilliantly tinted fans on the green lawn.
We remounted the elephants and returned to the house of the Governor. * After this there came to the house of the Governor ten men, with as many large wooden trays, in each of which were ten or twelve porcelain saucers with the flesh of various animals, that is, of calves, capons, pullets, pea-fowls and others, and various kinds of fish, so that of meat alone there were thirty or two-and-thirty dishes.
Having painted a strawberry-bed in a court yard, the pea-fowls were so deceived by the resemblance, that they pecked at the wall till they had destroyed the painting. He painted the landscape part of a picture of the Baptism of Christ, and on the ground drew some birds in the act of feeding.
Now and again we come upon a bevy of pea-fowls quietly feeding among the ferns, plump and beautiful creatures, mottled with white spots upon a glossy, slate-colored ground, and nearly as large as our average domestic fowls. In some parts of Ceylon, they are found in very large numbers, and as the natives do not disturb them, they are comparatively tame.
Ah! in those times if the planter wished to live well he had to raise everything himself, and the poultry yard and the dairy were something curious to see. Dozens of slaves were kept busy in them constantly. When my mother had raised two thousand chickens, besides turkeys, ducks, geese, guinea-fowls, and pea-fowls, she said she had lost her crop. And the quantity of butter and cheese!
She had considered the question from every point of view, and could not at once reverse her life; the change must come gradually. She had sent Owen away; that was enough for the present. The numerous pea-fowls had gathered in a bare roosting tree on an opposite hillside, and the immense tails of the cock-birds swept the evening sky.
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