THE swnni'iNCr, or natatorial group. 173 



flavour. This pat^ {pate de foie gras) is in 

 great request in France. The wretched geese 

 are fastened, nailed by the feet to a board, 

 placed before a hot fire, crammed -with food, 

 and supplied witli drink. In this situation 

 they pine, fever wastes away their flesh, but 

 the liver becomes enormously swollen ; and this 

 is the great desideratum.* Sucli it was also 

 with the Roman epicures of ancient times. 

 But a subject so repulsive need not detain us, 

 yet, alas ! we leave it but to notice a practice 

 equally horrible, and we think but little less 

 justifiable ; we allude to the plucking of live 

 geese, practised in various places where these 

 birds are kept for the profit, both of flesh and 

 clothing, as sheep are by the grazier. Sheep, 

 however, are mercifully sheared. 



According to Pennant, "geese are plucked 

 five times in the year ; the first plucking is at 

 Lady-day, for feathers and quills, and the 

 same is renewed foiu" times more between that 

 and Michaelmas for feathers only. The old 

 geese quietly submit to the operation, but the 

 young ones are very noisy and unruly. I once 



* Ducts are treated in a similar manner. Geese are reared in 

 LanguedOG and Alsace ; ducks in Lower Normandy and Lan^ue- 

 doc. The duck's liver-pies of Toulouse, and the goose-li-rer pies 

 of Strasburg, are highly celebrated. 



