Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/503

. N 25., JUNE 21. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

495

Biography. 1 . What is the best work to con- sult for the lives of the eminent characters of the British islands ?

2. Which is the best edition of Granger's Bio- graphical History of England f JAMES GRAVES.

Kilkenny.

[At present the most convenient works to consult for the lives of eminent British characters are Chalmers's and Grot 1 ton's Biographical Dictionaries, more especially as .their articles contain references to other works for further particulars, of each individual. The fourth edition of Granger's Biographical Dictionary, 4 vols. 8vo. 1804, is perhaps, the best, as Lowndes speaks of the. fifth, in 6 vols., 1824, as " in very little estimation." Our corre- spondent must not forget Dr. Johnson's characteristic motice of Granger : " The dog is a Whig. I do not like much to see a Whig in any dress ; but I hate to see a ''Whig in a parson's gown." A necessary accompaniment ttO'GKinger is, A Biographical History of England from the ^Revolution to the End of George I.'s Reign. By the Rev. 3Mark Noble, 8vo. 3 vols., 1806.]

Rubens' ''Judgment of Solomon." In the Fitz- r william Museum at Cambridge is a very good copy of " The Judgment of Solomon," by P. P. JRubens, and I have met with several other copies, .possessing one, of a larger size than any I have -seen, myself. The curator at the Museum in- formed me that the original was, several years .since, destroyed by fire, he believed somewhere in Lincolnshire. Will any of your readers be good enough to inform me if this be correct, to whom .it belonged, and at what time and place it was so .destroyed ? also, what was the size of the original ^painting? JOHN GARLAND.

Dorchester.

["The Judgment of Solomon" is described in Smith's Catalogue Raisonne of Works of Painters, vol. ii, p. 279., \wjh,e,re it is stated that its size was 12 in. by 15 in.]

WATCHFULNESS OF THE GOOSE.

(Concluded from p. 475.)

The vigilance of the goose, as compared with the dog, is favourably mentioned by Pliny (Hist. Nat., x. 26.), who adds that, in memory of the j preservation of the Capitol, the censors gave out ' the tender for the food of the public geese before any other tender. The anniversary of the pre- servation of the Capitol was likewise celebrated, as late as the times of Plutarch and ^Elian, and even at subsequent dates, by a slaughter of dogs, and an exhibition of a goose carried round in a richly ornamented litter.

According to Suidas (in Maiou^Ss), the festival at which the dogs were killed, in memory of their failure to bark when the Capitol was attacked by the Gauls, bore the name of Maiuma; it was celebrated in the month of August. The festival

of Maiuma was not, however, confined to this sub- ject. See Cod., xi. 46.

The account of Joannes Lydus, a writer who lived as late as the sixth century, in his work De Mensibus, iii. 40., is that, three days before the nones of August (Aug. 3.) a general slaughter of dogs took place in Rome, because they had be- trayed the Capitol, while the geese had saved it. Others (he remarks) said that this was done in order to prevent their being troublesome at night to the sick ; and others again affirmed that it was in order to guard against the mischief arising from canine madness ; for this was the time of the dog-star, which was believed to be the cause of madness in dogs. The explanation derived from the desire of preventing annoyance to the sick is probably founded on the prevalence of fevers at Rome in the autumnal season.

Augustine, in his Civitas Dei, ii. 22., remarks that the heathen gods forgot to protect Rome, when the city was burnt and taken by the Gauls, and the Capitol alone was defended. He adds that the Capitol itself would have been captured, if the geese had not remained awake, while the gods were slumbering. Owing to this circum- stance (he continues) Rome sank almost into an Egyptian superstition of animal worship, in offer- ing sacred rites to the goose.

In the interesting article on the goose in Buffon's Natural History (Oiseaux, torn, xvii., ed. Deux-Ponts, 1787, 12mo.), this great naturalist speaks of its " vigilance, tres anciennement ce- lebree ; " and he remarks of these birds in their wild state :

" Cette inconstance dans leur scjour, jointe & la finesse de 1'ou'ie de ces oiseaux et h leur cMfiante circonspection, font que leur chasse est difficile, et rendent menie inutiles la plupart des pieges qu'on leur tend."

Aristotle (Hist. An., i. 1.) likewise assigns to the goose the attributes of shyness and caution. It seems as if the aculeness of perception and habits of distrustful vigilance, which distinguish the goose in its wild state, are to some extent retained by the domesticated bird ; in the same manner that the screams which Homer describes as cha- racterising a flock of wild geese remain to it in a tame state. (Iliad, ii. 463.) Perhaps some of your correspondents may possess a sufficient knowledge of the habits of the tame goose to be able to say whether it exhibits those vigilant and perceptive qualities for which the Romans gave it credit, and which are related to have saved the Capitol.

Buffon says that the domesticity of the goose is less ancient and less complete than that of the common fowl, though anterior to that of the duck ; and that there is more difference between the tame goose and the wild goose, than between the tame duck and the wild duck. The domes- tication of the goose is certainly less complete than