In the corner of our lounge room we used to have an urn containing Peacock feathers
Occasionally when someone was enjoying a coffee break with us. We would hear
“Oh My Dear ! You have Peacock feathers; they are supposed to be very unlucky to have in the house”. As you may know Male Peacocks shed that heavy train after the breeding season, and friends who had them on the farm had given us them. If their was a curse I had often wondered how it would manifest itself. Returning home one afternoon we discovered two Peahens standing on the front lawn and a Peacock staring in the French windows that accessed our lounge. Whether he recognised the feathers as something he or a relation once owned I have no idea. My wife’s pleasure at seeing the Peacocks quickly shifted to one of anger as she observed the Peahens devour the lobelia seedlings she had planted. That was what remained of them that is because they had just about cleaned up the flower bed, so this was Phase 1 of the curse . My wife grabbed the hose and chased the peacocks with a jet of water. They retired to the roof where they embarked on Phase 2 ‘Pattern Bombing’, with their green droppings coloured from the proceeds of our long extinct flowerbed. Our dog looked at me with a silent plea to throw him up on the roof, and a visit from my next door neighbour complaining bitterly that ‘My Peacocks” had fouled his swimming pool and surroundings. I phoned everyone phone able, The City Council, the local Zoo and Wildlife Parks. They were most definite in their reply that no they certainly didn’t want any Peacocks. The illustrations came into my head from my childhood history books of those blokes carrying platters on their heads with dressed Peacocks on them. However, I had heard of no one with Peacock recipes. Phase three came the following morning with the raucous cry that Peacocks let out heralding the dawn. It was akin to some bloke with bad bugle talents. It was then that I remembered the girl I used to work with who had a relation that lived close to me and he owned Peacocks. I wondered if he had been released yet. He had a habit of coveting things, mostly other peoples. After many phone calls I located her and asked if Joe would like three Peacocks. Her first question made me rather suspicious “Why what have they done ?” I assured her that they were no problem whatsoever but I couldn’t keep them as I had no enclosure and I was worried that local dogs could savage them……She replied that she would give Joe a ring , and I gave her my address. Returning home that afternoon the Peacocks had disappeared. I have no knowledge of how or where. I was just pleased to see the back of them. A funny thing happened shortly after that. My dog who had never ever committed any sort of indiscretion in the household, but we found that he had defecated all over the urn of Peacock feathers and they were thrown out. That is the one and only blemish on his seven year record as a family member.