GEESE. 353 



know ; but, at the time of the Crusades, that famous expe- 

 dition undertaken by our ancestors in the reign of Henry the 

 Second, about six hundred and fifty years ago, a Goose was 

 carried as a standard at the head of one of those irregular 

 bands proceeding from Europe to Asia with the design of 

 rescuing the city of Jerusalem from the hands of the Saracens. 

 Of its attachment to the human race, Pliny, an ancient Roman 

 writer, gives several instances ; one only we select, as closely 

 resembling that with which we shall conclude. A person 

 named Lacydes, a philosopher, had a Goose which took so 

 strong a fancy to him, that it would never willingly leave 

 him by night or day, wherever he went the Goose was his 

 companion; if he went abroad and walked in the public 

 streets, the bird followed him, and, in his own house, always 

 forced itself into his presence. The philosopher, struck with 

 this constant and strange attachment, seems to have con- 

 sidered it as in some way or other connected with religious 

 feelings, and accordingly, when at last he died, he was at the 

 expense of bestowing upon it a magnificent funeral. 



Our next instance occurred in Scotland ; a Goose, a year 

 old, formed a similar attachment to a person in Elgin, and 

 would follow him any distance, even through the crowd and 

 bustle of the main street. One day, when going down this 

 street, its master went into a hair-dresser's shop to be 

 shaved, whereupon the bird waited patiently till the operation 

 was finished, and then accompanied him to the house of a 

 friend, after which it proceeded home with him. Change of 

 dress seemed to make no difference in the bird's powers of 

 distinguishing its master, for in whatever dress he appeared, 

 the Goose recognised him, and whenever he spoke, it re- 

 sponded by a cry expressive of satisfaction. 



Another similar case is on record in Germany : an aged 

 blind woman, who probably might have been in the habit of 

 feeding it, used to be led every Sunday to church by a 

 Gander taking hold of her gown with its bill; when she 

 had seated herself, it retired to graze in the churchyard till 

 she came out again, when it led her home. One day, the 

 .clergyman called at her house, and, expressing his surprise 



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