Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 266, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1910 — THE SACRED GOOSE. [ARTICLE]

THE SACRED GOOSE.

Figures of Fowl Indispensable alt Chinese Wedding—Ancient Goose Weights. Flights of wild geese are reported from the eastern counties in number beyond all precedent, a result of sudden chill lately, and their appetite after the journey is so keen that some of the best grazing marshes are threatened with ruin; nevertheless we learn many farmers dec.lne'to kill biirds which they think "almost sacred.” It was J. G. Frazer of the Golden Bough who suggested that the reverence felt for various creatures in various parts of the world is a survival of totemism. Plenty of evidence has accumulated since then. Caesar mentions, as schoolboys recollect, that the inhabitants of Britain might not eat the hare, the cock and the goose. In tlie second case the superstition is quite lost probably, but legendary records keep the memory of it in Ireland. But of the other exatnp es enough can be found even ac the present day. There is a “Goose Fair” at Great Crosby, in Lancashire, so called apparently because goose is rigorously forbidden. It Is even asserted broadly “that the Inhabitants: think the goose “too sacred" to eat—or did not so long ago. The same feeling ruled‘in the Hebrides and other parts of Scotland. No one believes at the present day that the Capitol was saved by g. ese or any other means, but if the story is not true it becomes all the more significant in tfte folklorist’s point of view, as showing that the bird was specially reverenced in the primitive age of Rome. The Crusaders under Walter , the Penniless, 400,000 souls, as we are assured, piously followed a goose and a goat marching in the van, and a terrible mess those holy animals led them, into! In Egypt the goose was the emblem of Seb, lather to Osiris; a precious figure of it is extant, inscribed: “The good Goose greatly beloved.’’ It was the national flag of Burma and of Kandy, Ceylon. Wherever Buddhism rules the goose is venerated. Therefore it is a leading motif i:i the art of Japan, and a symbol of peace and happiness in China. Figures of geese are as indispensable at a Chinese wedding as is bride cake with us. In both countries, as also in Burma and Siam, weights are made in the shape of a goose as a token of good faith, though the connection is not obvious; but in qneient Egypt the same custom ruled, and Lay -t-d- found goose weights among his first discoveries at Nineveh. A row of gigantic geese surrounds the great Buddhist temple of Anajapoora. The devout cherish a fond fancy that all. geese perform an aerial pilgrimage to the holiest lakes in the Himalayas every year, transporting the sins,,of the neighborhood; returning with a nev stock of inspiration for the encouragement of local piety—Pall Mall Gazette.