The Peacock

The peacock is, of course, a sacred bird. He is specially venerated by the Jâts, who strongly object to seeing the bird killed near their villages. A bunch of the feathers is waved over the sick to scare the demon of disease. As we have already seen, it is a charm against snake-bite to smoke one of its feathers in a pipe. In Europe the loud calling of the bird presages a death.