A HISTORICAL NOTE ON THE GUINEA-FOWL By D. Newbold “HE Guinea-fowl is so familiar a bird to officials and visitors in the ‘Sudan that the following rather unrelated notes on its appearances in history may be of interest, ‘The guinea-fowl and jungle fowl doubtless played a prominent part in the early history of many peoples as game birds comparatively easy to kill or capture, and it is probable that the former genus was subject to intermittent domestication by African tribes in their transition stage from pastoral to agricultural habits. Professor J. IL. Myers draws a graphic picture of a woman of such a tribe anchoring herself to same spot in the tribal wanderings and becoming the first Poultry-keeper. “* Jungle fowls which come pecking after pips and peelings may be induced to stay perhaps to lay eggs near by.” ‘The Ancient Egyptians, we are told by Sir Harry Johnston, kept guinea-fowl as curiosities, together with francolin and red-legged partridges, “ but did not develop them into permanently tamed additions to the poultry-yard.”* I believe guinea-fowl appear on ancient Egyptian wall-paintings. In Kordofan the guined-fowl, whose numbers there are countless, has a link with antiquity in one of its nicknames, viz.: "Gidad Abu Kona’an.” Abs Kona’an (= Canaan) is an ‘alternative name for the “‘Anag” or ancient pre-Arab inhabitants of Northern Kordofan, and I was told by a respectable and learned fki that the reason why the bird was given this name is a local belief that guinea-fowl were the domestic poultry bred by the aboriginal races and ran wild on the extermination ot migration of their masters. ‘The Anag are popularly supposed to have been giants, and are therefore endowed with gigantic cocks and hens. © Dawa of History (Home Univ. Sena), p. 23. T¥sbould be noted thatthe guinea: guar ‘ommon fon othe genes Calais dosed i tee cit Siow cf India (elias forugineus Or Gx Bankes) Tita canter wf 3 ‘Silndera between Ga nad 7th cintarea Be, and on the Lycian macs of hoo Bc now St'he Bre Saou, ba has moti to doit te gine ow, which we ral + Opening up of Abia” (Home Univ. Series), p96 4 he Sade nee ion is abow our or vee te eof Sadaoese domestic ony, Ths gens eng sh neo uct we romember ae lary exon! o ti mie is dove su ald very = oof ny eel dolatiah owl tun wid re rad ie the Cape Vere ands Paces Miata), an Asc (Ws Meleagris).126 SUDAN NOTES AND RECORDS ‘The guinea-fowl is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, but may be referred to in the “fated fowl” of Solomon's table, described in. T Kings, iv, 23.4 To leave the East and come to Greece, we find the humble guinea- fowl the subject of one of the better-known legends of classical mythology Meleager was a handsome, curly-haired prince, son of eneus, King of Calydon, and suffered a tragic death, in which the Erianyes or Fates played a rather interfering part. The sorrowing sisters of the young hero ‘were so disconsolate that the goddess Artemis, out of compassion, changed them into guinca-fowl and removed them to the Island of Leros, where for part of every year they mourned for their dead brother.* From this legend came the name Meleagris, by which the bird was Jong called, and which still attaches to the commonest of the species. ‘The guinea-fowl appears on Greek vases, but I have not been able to find any evidence of its domestication by the Greeks. The Carthaginians obtained the guinea-fowl from North Africa, and the bird first reached the Roman world through them,‘ and was called by the Romans the Numidian Fowl, Gallina Numidica, The Romans were too good gastronomists not to appreciate its peculiar flavour, and it speedily became a favourite table-fowl and figured at such feasts as are described in the Satyricon of Petronius, It fetched a high prive as a delicacy in spite of the unpleasant after-taste mentioned by Pliny.’ ‘The Romans apparently received another species later, which they called by the old Greek name of Meleagris. Columella, the famous writer on agriculture,’ distinguishes the Gallina Ajricana or Numédica irom the Meleagris, stating that the former has a red wattle and the latter blve. This confirms Sir Harry Johnston in giving an Abyssinian origin to ‘The domertic fowl was unknown in Western Asia til the Persian conquests, and ix aowhere mentioned in the OM Testament, The " fatted fowl” may have Been sted duck or geese. 4 'See Aristotle Historia Animism, 62.3. Ovid Metam, 8. v. $40. +" Opening up of Attica," page 84. Horace cals the guisea-fox! "Afra avis.” + Thave not been able to verify thisrelerence, which, I Chink is Natural History X.26.38 This curious detail is typical of the elder Pliny, who oaly ceased to record scientific facts when im his bath, as his nephew tele 8, * This looks a5 though they got it from the Greeks, but Sir Harry Johnston loc. cit) says they reecived if from near Abyssinia, whe they were governing Favpe Ke lived at Cadiz in the rst Century A.D, and wrote ina diffuse style cn corn, garden vogetables, nd the rearing of cattle, birds, shes and bees. His mention of guinea fow is in De xe rustica vil cap. 2