proaching death, they sing more merrily 

 than before because of the joy they have 

 in going to the God they serve ; but men, 

 through fear of death, reproach the 

 swans, saying that they lament their 

 death and sing their grief in sorrowful 

 tones.' After digressing to assert that no 

 bird sings when either hungry or sorrow- 

 ful, he resumes, 'Far less do the swans 

 sing out of grief, which, by reason of their 

 belonging to Apollo, are diviners, and 

 sing more joyfully on the day of their 

 death than ever before, as foreseeing the 

 good that awaits them in the other 

 world.' " 



Charles de Kay wrote : "Not the mag- 

 nificence merely, but the element of su- 

 perstitious reverence accounts for the fre- 

 quency of the swan as a crest and charge 

 of coats of arms," stating that in heraldry 

 the swan runs back through heraldic de- 

 vices to totemism, and that among the 

 "oath-birds" which wizards of Lapland 

 called upon in their incantations, the 

 swan often figured. 



It is also asserted that German local 

 legends retain the idea of the swan as an 

 uncanny bird, prophetic of death or the 

 under world, and that the Klagesee, or 

 Lake of Complaining, near Liban, was 

 so named from the numbers of musical 

 swans that congregated there. 



Pliny says, "Some affirm that swans 

 sing lamentably a little before death, but 

 untruly, I suppose, for experience of 

 many has shown the contrary." But 

 Aristotle says, "Swans are wont to sing, 

 particularly when about to die, and mar- 

 iners in African seas have observed many 

 of them singing with a mournful voice, 

 and expiring with the notes of their dy- 

 ing hymn." 



Cicero affirmed that Lucius Crassus 

 spoke with the divine voice of a swan 

 about to die ; while Homer makes no al- 

 lusion to their singing, but mentions their 

 "flying round the springs of Cayster, 

 clanging on sounding pinions." Oppian 

 asserts, "They sing at dawn before the 

 rising of the day as if to be heard more 

 clearly through the still air. They also 

 sing on the sea-beach, unless prevented 

 by the sounds of storms and boisterous 

 weather, which would not permit them to 

 enjoy the music of their own songs. Even 



in old age, when about to die, they do not 

 forget their songs, though they are more 

 feeble than in youth, because they can- 

 not so well erect their necks and expand 

 their wings. * * * 



"They are invited to sing by Favonius, 

 and as their limbs become sluggish and 

 their members deficient in strength when 

 death approaches, they withdraw to some 

 place where no bird can hear them sing, 

 and no other swans, impelled by the same 

 cause, may interrupt their requiem." 



While on the one hand Julius Scaliger 

 vituperates Cardan for "lauding the non- 

 sense of the poets, and the mendacity of 

 the Greeks about the singing of the 

 swan," Aldrovand cites on their behalf 

 the testimony of one Frederico Pendasio, 

 a celebrated professor of philosophy and 

 a person worthy of credit, who told him 

 that he had frequently heard swans sing- 

 ing melodiously while he was sailing on 

 the Mantuan Lake ; also that one George 

 Braun had heard the swans near London 

 "sing festal songs." 



Besides this, Mr. Rennie says, Olius 

 Wormius professed that many of his 

 friends and scholars had heard them sing- 

 ing, and proceeded to give the experi- 

 ence of one John Rostorph, a student in 

 divinity, and a Norwegian by nation. 

 "This man did, upon his credit, and with 

 the interposition of an oath, solemnly af- 

 firm, that once in the territory of Dron- 

 ten, as he was standing on the seashore 

 early in the morning, he heard an unusual 

 and sweet murmur, composed of the most 

 pleasant whistlings and sounds ; he knew 

 not at first whence they came, or how 

 they were made, for he saw no man near 

 to produce them ; but looking round 

 about him, and climbing to the top of a 

 certain promontory, he there espied an 

 infinite number of swans gathered to- 

 gether in a bay, and making the most de- 

 lightful harmony — a sweeter in all his 

 life-time he had never heard." 



To this testimony Goldsmith appends 

 his personal opinion in the following 

 words : "Thus it appears that our mod- 

 ern authorities in favour of the singing of 

 swans are rather suspicious, since they 

 are reduced to this Mr. George Braun 

 and John Rostorph, the native of a coun- 

 try remarkable for ignorance and credul- 



L38 



