406 THE DOMESTIC GOOSE. 



hides itself, as we pursue it, in the remotest depths and 

 obscurest mists of ancient history. We have already hinted, 

 that by the Hebrews, as by many modern naturalists, it would 

 probably be classed generically with the Swan, and so be in- 

 cluded in their list of unclean birds. Among the Greeks and 

 Romans, it seems to have been the only really domesticated 

 Water Fowl ; and appears to have held exactly the same place 

 in their esteem, that it still retains, after the lapse of two or 

 three thousand years, in our farm-yards, and on our commons. 

 Indeed, a modern writer may escape a great part of the trouble 

 of composing the natural history of the Domestic Goose, if he 

 will only collect the materials that are scattered among 

 ancient authors. A very early notice of them occurs in Ho- 

 mer. Penelope, relating her dream, says, 



" A team of twenty geese (a snow-white train !) 

 Fed near the limpid lake with golden grain, 

 Amuse my pensive hours." 



Pope's version is both flat and inaccurate. The " snow- 

 white train/' (I would bet Mr. Pope a dish of tey as he 

 rhymes it that Penelope's Geese were not snow-white, what- 

 ever the Ganders might be,) the " limpid lake," the " pensive 

 hours," are not Homeric, but Popeiau. The literal translation 

 of the Greek is, " I have twenty Geese at home, that eat wheat 

 out of water, and I am delighted to look at them." We omit 

 tne rest of her vision, as little to our purpose; but her mode 

 of fatting them, and her complacent chuckle at seeing them 

 thrive, could not be surpassed by the most enthusiastic mem- 

 bers of the Royal Agricultural Society. If she entertained 

 her numerous suitors with fat roast Goose, it may partly ex- 

 plain why they stuck to her in so troublesome and pertinacious 

 a manner. 



The alarm given at the approach of the army of the Gauls, 

 by the Geese kept in the capitol of Rome, occurred so long 



