B598 <=> B600 (BTG XXXIV Russia, p. 599)

“He developed this thought of his in a long dissertation thus: ‘If we analyze impartially and sum up statistically this understanding and picturing which obtain among people of the contemporary civilization concerning the races which populate Europe, in contradistinction to other continents, and make an analogy between these races and birds, then the people who represent the very “Tzimus” of contemporary European civilization, namely, those who arise and dwell on the continent Europe, must infallibly be called peacocks, that is, the birds who have the most beautiful and most gorgeous exterior, while the people who dwell on other continents must be called crows, that is, the most good-for-nothing and dirty of all birds.

“’But for those contemporary people who obtain the basis and the required conditions for their arising on the continent of Europe and who are formed on it, but whose subsequent life, and consequently further “stuffing,” proceeds for some reason or other on other continents, and also for those contemporary people who, on the contrary, appear on “God’s Earth” on any continent and obtain their further “stuffing” under the conditions arising and reigning on the continent Europe, no better “comparison” can be found than the bird turkey.

“’This latter bird, more than all other birds, expresses a something which is neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring, but which represents in itself, as is said, “a-half-with-a-quarter-plus-three-quarters.”

“’The best representatives of these “turkeys” are the contemporary people of Russia and it was by these turkeys, namely, that one of the chief crows of this country was surrounded who not long ago rapidly passed by us.