An old story, frequently embellished and
reprinted over the years, has it that back in colonial days a white hunter
unevenly divided the spoils of a day's hunt with his Indian companion. Of
the four crows and four wild turkeys they had bagged, the hunter handed a
crow to the Indian, took a turkey for himself, then handed a second crow
to the Indian and put still another turkey in his own bag. All the while
he kept saying, "You may take this crow and will take this turkey," or
something similar, but the Indian wasn"t as gullible as he thought. When
he had finished dividing the kill, the "ignorant savage" protested: "You
talk all turkey for you. You never once talk turkey for me! Now I talk
turkey to you." He then proceeded to take his fair share. Most scholars
agree that from this probably comes the expression let's talk turkey,
let's get down to real business.