THE DOMESTIC GOOSE 



immobility, complete repose, and almost continual 

 sleep. These principles recalled to mind, let us con- 

 sider the Toulouse method. The geese are shut 

 up in a dark place, cool without being damp, where 

 they cannot hear the noises of the poultry-yard. 

 The trumpet-calls of their free companions would 

 awaken in them vexatious regrets and would inter- 

 fere with their digestion. Three times a day the 

 woman employed to fatten them seats herself on a 

 low chair and takes them one by one between her 

 knees so as to control their movements. She opens 

 the beak by force and thrusts far down the throat 

 the tube of a tin funnel. ' ' 



"That funnel is for feeding them?" asked Emile. 



"Precisely." 



"Then they are compelled to swallow even if they 

 don't want to." 



' ' What does the f attener care ? All that concerns 

 her is not to wound the bird during the operation. 

 Furthermore, to make the utensil slip into its place 

 better she takes care to oil the end of it a little. 

 The poor creature struggles and protests as best it 

 can against the violence to which it is subjected. 

 But all in vain: the woman keeps at it. Now she 

 pours a handful of maize into the funnel, and as the 

 grains would not descend of themselves, the bird 

 contracting that part of its throat not reached by the 

 tube, she pushes them down with little blows on the 

 crop with a wooden rammer; she crams (that is the 

 word) the patient's stomach with maize. From 

 time to time a little cold water is given to aid this 



