Page:Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, The - Vol. 9.pdf/13

2 According to the Chinese tradition they received their poultry from the west—probably Burma or the adjacent countries, about 1400

Among the sacred books of the East we find in the Institutes of Manu that the tame fowl as food was forbidden, while in the wild state it was allowed to be eaten, indicating it was domesticated when those laws were written. Unfortunately very little is known as to the date of the Institutes of Manu. They are probably much older than their present form which Prof. Buhler places somewhere between 200 and 200

In the Old Testament apparently no mention is made of the domestic fowl.

According to Alfred Newton and Sethe Jungle-fowl are figured on Assyro-Babylonian gems, but they hardly date earlier than the seventh century Upon this subject Mr Sidney Smith has kindly given me the following note upon the domestic fowl in Babylonia and Assyria:

“There are several references in bird-lists and omen-texts of the Kuyunjik collection to a bird, the name of which in Sumerian was written meaning the 'egg-bird .' The Sumerian form gave rise to the Accadian Tarru and Tarlugallu, which became in Syriac, gallus, cock. The history of the word clearly shows that the cock was known in Babylonia in the early Sumerian period, i.e. before 2500 The mention of the bird in omen-texts shows that it was subject to the same kind of observation in Babylonia as in Rome. From the syllabaries it appears that it was also known by various epithets, viz. burrumtu, 'parti-coloured,' kakabanu, 'the starry ,' and kudurranu, 'the crested.'

"The hen was most probably called kurkû, a bird known to be a domestic fowl from frequent references . It was used for festival offerings to the goddess Bau in the time of Gudea , and was kept, as were all the other domesticated birds, in great numbers by the temples.