232 
MICHAELMAS GOOSE^ 
meat. The women take the steak, and cut it lengthwise like strings, 
about the thickness of your little linger, then crosswise into square 
pieces, something smaller than dice. This they lay upon a piece of the 
telf-bread, strongly powdered with black pepper, or Cayenne pep- 
per, and fossil salt; they then wrap it up in the telf-bread like a 
cartridge. 
“ In the mean time, the man having put down his knife, with each 
hand resting upon his neighbour’s knee, his body stooping, his head 
low and forward, and mouth open very like an idiot, turns to the one 
whose cartridge is first ready, wdio stufis the whole of it into his mouth, 
which is so full that he is in constant danger of being choked. This 
is a mark of grandeur. The greater a man would seem to be, the 
larger a piece he takes into his mouth ; and the more noise he makes 
in chewing it, the more polite he is thought to be. They have indeed 
a proverb that says, ‘ Beggars and thieves only eat small pieces, or 
without making a noise.’ Having despatched this morsel, which he 
does very expeditiously, his next female neighbour holds forth another 
cartridge, which goes the same w'ay ; and so on till he is satisfied. 
He never drinks till he has finished eating ; and before he begins, in 
gratitude to the fair ones that feed him, he makes up two small rolls 
of the same kind and form; each of his neighbours open their mouths 
at the same time, while with each hand he puts their portion into 
their mouths. He then falls to drinking out of a large handsome 
horn ; the ladies eat till they are satisfied, and then all drink together, 
' Vive le joye et la jeunesse!' A great deal of joke and mirth go 
round, very seldom with any mixture of acrimony or ill-humour. 
“ At this time the unfortunate victim at the door is bleeding indeed, 
but bleeding little. As long as they can cut off flesh from his bones, 
they do not meddle with the thighs, or the parts were the great arte- 
ries are. At last they fall upon the thighs likewise, and soon after, 
the animal bleeding to death becomes so tough, that the cannibals 
who have the rest of it to eat, find very hard work to separate the 
flesh from the bones with their teeth, like dogs.” 
Michaelmas Goose. 
Michaelmas was formerly a season of great celebrity : at present, 
all that w e do in honour of it, is to eat a goose. The origin of this 
custom is referred to Queen Elizabeth, who was eating goose on Michael- 
mas-day, when she heard of the destruction of the Spanish Armada. 
Geese are not, in general, of such famous repute in France as they 
are here, and seldom make their appearance upon the tables of Pari- 
sian epicures. The flesh they condemn as coarse and unwholesome; 
and the apple-sauce, when mentioned, never fails to elicit flashes of 
astonishment, subsiding into peals of laughter. But the livers and 
thighs of geese learnedly made into pies, and properly truffled, (pat6s 
de foies gras,) are reckoned a most delicate article ; yet they have 
killed nearly as many gastronomers as the small-pox and scarlet fever 
have destroyed children. The department of Perigord, with Toulouse 
and Bayonne, used, notwithstanding, to cook annually, for the rest of 
the world, about one hundred and twenty thousand of these lethiferous 
