Chap. VII.] 



THE FINE ARTS. 



485 



Sacred Lake." Hence, according to the Rajavali, 

 the hon was pre-eminent amongst beasts, "the hanza 

 was kino- over aU tlie feathered tribes." ^ In one of 

 the Jatakas, which contains the legend of Buddha's 

 apotheosis, his hair, when suspended in the sky, is de- 

 scribed as resembhng "the beautiful Kala hanza." ^ 

 The goose is, at the present day, the national emblem 

 emblazoned on the standard of Burmah, and the brass 

 weights of the Burmese are 

 generally cut in the shape 

 of the sacred bird, just as 

 the Eg}^3tians formed their 

 weights of stone after the 

 same model.^ 



AuGUSTiXE, in his Civitas 

 Dei, traces the respect for 

 the goose, displayed by the 

 Eomans, to their gratitude 

 for the safety of the capital ; 

 when the vigilance of this 

 bird defeated the midnight attack by the Goths. The 

 adulation of the citizens, he says, degenerated afterwards 

 almost to Eg}^3tian superstition, in the rites instituted 

 in honour of their preservers on that occasion.^ But 

 the very fact that the geese which saved the citadel 

 were already sacred to Juno, and domesticated in her 

 temple, demonstrates the error of Augustine, and shows 

 that they had acquired mythological eminence, before 



FKOM THE BDEMliSE STANDARD. 



^ Rajavali, p. 149. The Maha- 

 wan'<o, ch. xxx. p. 179, also speaks of 

 the " hanza,^^ as amongst the decora- 

 tions chased on the stem of a bo- 

 tree, modelled in gold, which was 

 deposited by Dutugaimunu when 

 buildmg the Ruanwelle dagoba at 

 Anarajapoora in the 2nd centnry be- 

 fore Christ. 



^ IIaedy's Buddhism, cli. vii. p. 

 161. 



^ See Syme's Embassy to Am, p. 

 .330 ; Yule's Narrative of the British 



Mission to Ava in 185-5, p. 110. I 

 have seen a stone in the form of a 

 goose, fomid in the ruins of Nineveh, 

 which appears to have been used as a 

 weight. 



* " And hereupon did Eome fall 

 almost into the superstition of the 

 ^Eg^'ptians that worship birds and 

 beasts, for they henceforth kept a 

 holy day which they call the r/ooses 

 feast.''' — Augustine, Ciritas iJei, iSV. 

 'book ii. ch. 22 : Englished by F. II. 

 Icoud. 1610. 



I I 3 



