[Illustration: Fig. 94.--The Poultry-dealer.--Fac-simile of an Engraving
on Wood, after Cesare Vecellio.]
The pea-fowl played an important part in the chivalric banquets of the
Middle Ages (Fig. 95). According to old poets the flesh of this noble bird
is "food for the brave." A poet of the thirteenth century says, "that
thieves have as much taste for falsehood as a hungry man has for the flesh
of the peacock." In the fourteenth century poultry-yards were still
stocked with these birds; but the turkey and the pheasant gradually
replaced them, as their flesh was considered somewhat hard and stringy.
This is proved by the fact that in 1581, "La Nouvelle Coutume du
Bourbonnois" only reckons the value of these beautiful birds at two sous
and a half, or about three francs of present currency.
|