THE HERON AS A TABLE- BIRD 109 
silly prejudice which prevented people from eating 
them. And though they never had one on the 
table that wasn’t tough and dry and fishy - tasted 
he would still bring them in and argue that they 
were very good. “We loved,” they said, “to see 
the sheldrakes flying about on the coast, but how 
we hated to see them brought in to be cooked for 
dinner! But he was always very masterful with 
us and we never dared to go against his wishes.” 
One day he brought in a heron, and they were 
quite startled at the sight of such a huge, lank, 
grey, loose-feathered creature with such immense 
legs and such a dreadful beak. But when he said 
it would be a grand experience for them to eat 
heron they thought he must be joking, although 
it was not a common thing for him to say anything 
in fun. He was a very serious sort of man. Finally 
' they ventured to ask him if he really meant that 
this upsetting bird was to be eaten? He was 
quite indignant: of course it was to be eaten, he 
said; did they imagine that he killed birds just 
for the pleasure of killing them! He said it would 
be a grand day for them when they sat down to a 
heron on the table. Didn’t they know that it 
was one of the most famous birds of the old time 
—that the heron was regarded as a noble, a royal 
bird, that it was a great dish at the feast in 
baronial halls; and that’s how he went on until 
they were quite ashamed of their ignorance of the 
old days and humbly promised to cook the bird. 
Very well, he said, he was going to hang it in the 
