King of the Peacocks

“ The peacock comes originally from India: it was there that Alexander the Great saw it for the first time. He was so struck with its magnificent plumage that he forbad all persons, under pain of death, to kill any. [XVII_115]
Oriental princes kept the peacocks which travellers brought them, from time to time, in their aviaries. [XVII_116] It was thus [XVII_117] that a certain king of Egypt received one, of which he thought Jupiter alone worthy; wherefore he sent it in great pomp to the temple of that god. ”

“ Rosette could not make out what was happening. “Is our boat having a dance on the water?” she said. (166) “I am not accustomed to feeling so uneasy as I am to-night,” and all the while Fretillon continued barking, and going on as if he was out of his mind. The wicked nurse and the boatman heard him from afar, and said: “There’s that funny little beast drinking our healths with his mistress. Let us make haste to land,” for they were now just opposite the town of the King of the Peacocks. ”

“ He had sent down a hundred chariots to the landing-place; they were drawn by all kinds of rare animals, lions, bears, stags, wolves, horses, oxen, asses, eagles, and peacocks: and the chariot which was intended for the Princess was harnessed with six blue monkeys, that could jump, dance on the tight rope, and do endless clever tricks; they had beautiful trappings of crimson velvet, overlaid with plates of gold. Sixty young maids of honour were also in attendance, who had been chosen by the King for the amusement of the Princess ”

“ When he is pleased he lifts up his train and spreads it out like a fan—a fan of such beautiful colours and so delightful a pattern that it could not be made for a king’s ransom. In the moulting season these feathers drop off, and then the Peacock is so much ashamed of himself that he hides away until they grow again. His wife is not so richly dressed; indeed, the poor thing is quite a dowdy person. ”

“ Anybody can keep hens, “me and Crankin” can raise ducks, geese thrive naturally with me, but a peacock is a rare and glorious possession. The proud scenes he is associated with in mythology, history, and art rushed through my mind with whirlwind rapidity as I stood debating the question. The favorite bird of Juno—she called the metallic spots on its tail the eyes of Argus—imported by Solomon to Palestine, essentially regal. Kings have used peacocks as their crests, have worn crowns of their feathers. Queens and princesses have flirted gorgeous peacock fans ”

“ He was dressed from head to foot in white, and as we sat together in the divan, I thought that I had seldom drunk coffee in more remarkable company. I told him that I knew his people in the Jebel Sim’ûn and that they had spoken of him as the ruler of all.
“The ruler of us all,” he replied gravely, “is God.”{274}
In the courtyard were a pair of peacocks, in honour, no doubt, of the Angel Peacock, who rules the age of 10,000 years in which we live, and is the symbol of him who must not be named. ”

“ The starry sky and the rayed sun.—The peacock becomes a crow; the crow becomes a peacock.—Peacock and swan; the dove and the peacock.—The kokilas and the peacock.—Indras now a peacock, now a cuckoo.—The peacock's feather.—Indras's horses have peacock's feathers and peacock's tails.—Skandas rides upon the peacock.—Argus becomes a peacock.—The peacock as the avis Junonia; Jove is the bird of Juno.
We end our mythical journey in the kingdom of winged animals with the bird of all the colours.
The serene and starry sky and the shining sun are peacocks. ”

“ The noise of a peacock cannot be said to be melodious or soothing at any time.
"Why don't you wring that bird's neck?" he says savagely to a gardener's boy who is gathering up fallen rose-leaves.
The boy gapes and touches his hair, his hat being already on the ground in sign of respect. The peacocks have been at Surrenden ever since Warren Hastings sent the first pair as a present to the Lady Usk of that generation, and they are regarded with a superstitious admiration by all the good Hampshire people who walk in the gardens of Surrenden or visit them on the public day. ”

“ One day, a company of birds assembled on a high mountain, and one of them said to another, 'Verily, we are waxed many and many are the differences between us, and needs must we have a king to order our affairs, so shall we be at one and our differences will cease.' Thereupon up came the sparrow and counselled them to make the peacock,—that is, the prince he used to visit,—king over them. So they chose the peacock to their king and he bestowed largesse on them and made the sparrow his secretary and vizier. ”

“ Does a peacock stop strutting if it happens to see its feet? My old nurse told me that, and said that it shows that pride always goes before a fall. I never was where they kept peacocks before I came to Warwick Hall, and I've spent hours watching Madam's to see if it is true. But they are always so busy strutting, I've never been able to catch them looking at their feet. ”

“ There is a little city hard by in which there is a garden of tulip-trees. And there dwell in this comely garden white peacocks and peacocks that have blue breasts. Their tails when they spread them to the sun are like disks of ivory and like gilt disks. And she who feeds them dances for their pleasure, and sometimes she dances on her hands and at other times she dances with her feet. Her eyes are coloured with stibium, and her nostrils are shaped like the wings of a swallow. From a hook in one of her nostrils hangs a flower that is carved out of a pearl. ”

“ The peacock has ever been regarded as a sacred bird, both by the peoples of the East and the West. The Greek fable of Argus the hundred-eyed, the sleepless guardian of Io, serves to connect the idea of extreme vigilance with that of true kingship, i.e. the universal preserver and father of the people. The peacock therefore presented a double significance to the minds of the Hindu peoples ”

“ My West Virginia home has many beauties of nature, shady dells where waters sparkle, pastures that slope toward the shining Ohio, lofty trees that give shade to sleek cattle and spirited horses; but amid all these charms we have always rated highly the gorgeous peacocks which have so long adorned its grounds that it has become known as the "Home of the Peacocks." ”

“ Flem
Sir, that's an honor that—
Peacock No compliments. And, for the dowry, I'm going to give you half the immense revenue from this insurance policy which you cannot fail to collect. And no, I'm going to show you our gold mine. You'll have to agree he's an excellent specimen.
(Exit Peacock into his house.)
Flem What a man Doctor Peacock is! Some people think he's a little crazy; but what's just happened would go a long way to disabuse them.
(Peacock returns from the house leading Dudley, a sturdy old peasant.)
Peacock
Have a look at this young fellah! Ever see a better built body? ”

“ According to the Pańćatantram (i. 175) , in the very house of Çivas (the phallical god) , the animals make war against each other; the serpent (the night) wishes to eat the mouse (which seems here to be the grey twilight) ; the peacock (here, perhaps, the moon) , wishes to eat the serpent (cfr. the preceding notes; according to Ælianos, a certain man who wished to steal from the King of Egypt a peacock, supposed to be sacred, found an asp in its stead) ; the lion (the sun) wishes to eat the peacock. ”

“ For I will not speak of the forced voices, and all the rest that art contrives against the truth. Whence does the peacock, that boastful bird of Media, get his love of beauty and of praise (for he is fully conscious of his own beauty) , so that when he sees any one approaching, or when, as they say, he would make a show before his hens, raising his neck and spreading his tail in circle around him, glittering like gold and studded with stars, he makes a spectacle of his beauty to his lovers with pompous strides? ”

“ No one knows how Whistler came to know so much about peacocks. A duffer can paint the bird until he comes to the neck—and then we have to turn to photographs for the reality that gives us pleasure, it eludes all modern genius. So for the most part, fortunately, peacocks are left severely alone. The dancing of the première danseuse at the Empire, perfected with ardent years of study, is a less recondite theme of movement than a peacock raising its head. ”

“ Pretty soon he met some young men who also were going to the Fair. “Aha!” said Mr. Peacock. “These people will admire me!” and he strutted more than ever.
“Look!” said the young men. “What a fine peacock, and what splendid feathers he has! They are just what we want for our hats.” They surrounded Mr. Peacock, and, spite of his screams of rage and terror, tore out three or four of his finest tail feathers and went away laughing. Presently he fell in with a large flock of geese which a boy was driving to the Fair to sell. ”

“ Pope Leo the Fourth had a hanging worked with the needle, having the portrait of a man seated upon a peacock. Pope Stefano the Fifth had four magnificent hangings for the great altar, one of which was wrought in peacocks. We find in romance that there was a high emblematical value attached to peacocks; not so high, however, as to prevent our ancestors from eating them; but it is difficult to account for their being so frequently introduced in designs professedly religious. ”

“ The calm, azure heavens, bespangled with a thousand stars, a thousand brilliant eyes, and the sun rich with the colours of the rainbow, offer the appearance of a peacock in all the splendour of its eye-besprinkled feathers. ”

“ What kind of animal art thou? The peacock said: I am a peacock. The bats replied: Out on thee, thou impostor! what is this folly? The peacock said: I am a peacock, the son of a peacock, and the carriage of the Goddess Saraswatí is a hereditary office in our caste. The bats said: Thou art a liar, and the son of a liar; dost thou know better than the Goddess herself? And they drove the peacock out of the temple, and paid, as formerly, worship to the owl.
Then said the Wairágí: Rajpoot, thou hast opened my eyes. ”

“ The man that's with over-indulgence oppressed, White-livered and pursy, can relish no dish, Be it ortolans, oysters, or finest of fish. Still I scarcely can hope, if before you there were A peacock and capon, you would not prefer With the peacock to tickle your palate, you're so Completely the dupes of mere semblance and show. For to buy the rare bird only gold will avail, And he makes a grand show with his fine painted tail. As if this had to do with the matter the least! Can you make of the feathers you prize so a feast? And, when the bird's cooked, what becomes of its splendour? ”