Connecticut western news., 1922-11-30
IS TURK A TURK?
Question Has Never Been Sat
 isfaCtoriIY Answered.
But Whether American or Asiatic, No One Has Ever Denied It's
 DeIectabIe Flavor.

Al Antakl-naS Q1SCOVoreO III All cient Arabic books written long before the discovery of America a descrip- tion of what he thinks must be the modern turkey-bird1a the old author found 1t in fact in Asia Minor, which the Turks of his religion had already conquered. Such piece of news goes along we'll with the conquering of what we used to call Turkey by Mus tapha Renal and, if 1t were true, he would be warranted in taking our tur- key for his own Thanksgiving em- blem.
 French naturalists have started up at once and give the reasons, which they say are imperative, why the tur- key bird is genuine American, in the woods when Columbus came and in the Puritan Pilgrims pot. No for eigners need apply-and, as for the enigma of the name turkey" what's in a name, anyway? That can be ex- plained, and so can what the old Arab said
 This Is the sum of the French ar gument. The very type of all turkeys AS lOuuu III was ldAly described in all his glory-speckled with eye spots small, but bright, al most as those of the peacock's plu- mage with deep-sea blue head and orange-red dewlaps-35 years after Columbus first glimpsed America. Now, the Arab of the Turkish con- quest uses a good deal of literature A. -ho& hn ov,Ixr a guinea hen. And he is the only traveller or writer who ever used lan- guage that could be even remotely applied to our American bird until the turkey had become domestic fowl in Europe, after being brought over from America as a curiosity. The misfortune was that somehow the Eng fish baptized him turkey" They got hold of him very early, with their usual love of good eating. Perhaps he was brought over by Cabot, in which case he would have been one of our United States or Canadian tur- keys, but more likely some buecaneer brought him back from Panama, where the "Christians' were breeding him as domestic fowl even before Span ish OViedo described him so scien- tifcally.
 Point Made by the French.
 "He makes a wheel of his tail," says Oviedo, to distinguish him from other birds of this wonderful world tbst resemble him in other ways but, he hastens to add, "his tail is not as beautiful as that of our Spanish peacocks."
 Here the French make their point. The Romans were as great and curious eaters as the English, and they ate peacocks and brought back from Col-s chis in Asia Minor Cor Turkey in Asia) pheasants for the sake of eat ing them, and their Latin books speak of them with all particulars. Whoy can imagine they would have passed by the turkey, which is no end better eating than the most golden pheasant? They never speak of any bird like h1m--~but they know the guinea hen which the old Arab seems to have meant to describe. ].
 Now here the mistake of early nat uralists in Europe comes In. They never tried to reason out why in the world the English called the bird a turkey" but they must have been influenced by the name-and they de- cided to call 1t "Meleagris Gallopavo" "a three-barreled blunder which was intended to mean a combination of guinea hen, Gallic cock and peacock. This was the bright idea of the great Linnaeus who cannot have seen one or eaten one in his native Sweden.
 Perhaps he was influenced by the unlucky common names fer the glori- ous bird. The English called him turkey" but the French call him "dindon," which means Indian bird. Now, at the beginning, America was universally spoken of as India" and we ourselves still say "West Indies" Put that alongside of the Italian name for Indian corn-"Grano Turco" or Turkish grain-and we may guess how Turk and Indian got mixed up for something only, uniquely, solely and exclusively American in it's origin
 Testimony for America
  at Thanksgiving and, as Tusser said in 1878 for England before the first century of America was done-'1n Christmas husbandlie farer-s a na- tive of the New World where 1t was first described and not of the Old World, where DO one ever described 1t at all until long after.
 If there had been anything ifhe the American bird" says a French nat uralist ''how could 1t have ever been forgotten in Turkey or Asa or Eu- rope. leaving not footprint or prog eny or any memory behindP
 On the contrary, sn the woods of America were full of shem, 30 that DO i European or Turk OF Arab could ever talk Of having introduced thsm- And doubtless the same may ba said ot In- dian corn, which goes sIoOG with Fur key even in the mixture n nAxnNM Bx4 |