174 GEESE. 



ten. When the Goslings are hatched, they are kept 

 in a warm place for about four or five days, and fed 

 on barley-meal, mixed, if possible, with milk, and 

 then they will begin to graze. 



Thus much for the attention due to the Goose for 

 its pecuniary worth; but beyond this, it has quali- 

 ties, we might almost say, of the mind, of a very 

 singular character: we mean, the unaccountable 

 constancy and aifection which it has been known to 

 show not only to its own species, and to other birds 

 and animals, but more particularly to man, And it 

 is not improbable, that these qualities, which, as we 

 shall soon show, were known to the ancients, might 

 have rendered it an object of high esteem, and even 

 in some cases sacred, as, for instance, it was to Juno, 

 the queen of their idol gods. 



We shall briefly illustrate this part of our history 

 by examples drawn from various sources, ancient as 

 well as modern, corroborating them with a case 

 which occurred in our own neighbourhood. 



We have just mentioned, that this bird was held 

 sacred to Juno, and we have good reason for sup- 

 posing, that by the Gauls, an ancient and barbarous 

 people, inhabiting the northern arid western parts of 

 Europe, it was held in almost equal estimation. 

 How long this continued we do not know; but, at 

 the time of the Crusades, that famous expedition 

 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 Jeru- 

 salem from the hands of the Saracens. Of its 



