|

SNATCHING THE GOOSE.

several days before she begins the process of spinning and
enveloping herself.

The cocoons intended for producing the moth should be
placed on a frame, and left there until the insects come
forth ; after which they should be conveyed to an in-
clined plane covered with a strip of soft cloth, upon which
they will mount and deposit their eggs. After the per-

| formance of the last mentioned tenon the insect crawls

away and speedily dies. An ounce of eggs is estimated

| to produce fully 40,000 hatched silkworms; which, during

| their five stages of existence, will consume from 1200 to
| 1600 Ibs. weight of leaves, according to their vigour and
the temperature of the season. We

SNATCHING THE GOOSE.

f was a merry time, the Carnival, in
the olden days! Here in England,
where we work so hard and have so
few general holidays, it has quite died

out ; and even in other countries where it is still

kept up in name, it is shorn of half its glories; but
in the old days it was the time looked forward to
throughout the year by every town apprentice,
and was celebrated with many a strange observance
by the various guilds or trade companies. In

Hungary, for instance, some hundred years ago,

the Worshipful Company of Butchers made it a

sine qua non that any one who desired the freedom

of their guild should submit himself to the follow-
ing strange ordeal. His apprenticeship, unless he
were a master’s son, lasted three years, at the end

of which time he was obliged to take a bath of a

very peculiar kind. On the last Wednesday of the

Carnival, the day when the butchers had their

grand annual dance, two immense tubs were placed

in front of the house where the journeymen butchers
lodged; one filled with dirty, the other with clean
water. A couple of hours before the bath, the
hero of the day was carried through the streets by
two journeymen, sitting astride on a pole and
seattering dried plums and not a few cinders,
among the crowd of boys who followed him. The
weather was usually bitterly cold, and he was
therefore allowed to wear what clothes he pleased;
only, over all it was quite essential that he should
have a linen shirt and linen trousers, and many a
young man contented himself with wearing these
garments alone. Arrived at the scene of action,
attended no doubt by a large throng of amused
spectators, two master butchers were appointed to
see that all was done in conformity with the old
tradition, and then the youth plunged head fore-
most first into the tub of dirty water, then into.the
clean, repeating this act three times. If he made
any attempt to shirk a thorough wetting, the two
attendant masters only plunged him the deeper into
the water; but he might hurry over his six dips
with what speed he liked, and then betake himself

VOU. IX. N.S.—NO. L.

97
to a warm room to change his dress. ‘This luxury,
however, was generally dispensed with, for the
butchers were either naturally a hardy race or else
were inured to hardships by their apprenticeship,
and could afford to despise as superfluities such
little matters of comfort as now we should deem
necessaries. Usually, therefore, as he came panting
up from his last dip, the bather seized some vessel,
and took his revenge on the gaping crowd, to
whom he had afforded so much amusement, by
dashing water over all those who were not quick
enough to get out of his way. The old manners
were certainly not very refined, and the ‘*’Prentices’
Bath” found so few admirers, and so many who
positively condemned it, that at length it was
entirely discontinued. Still it was not without a
certain significance, intimating as it clearly did the
cleanliness indispensable in such a trade as that of
a butcher, which involved so much dirty work.

On this same day, in the Carnival, the butchers
had another odd custom, not more refined than the
“’Prentices’ Bath,” and more cruel. This was
called ‘‘ Snatching the Goose,” and was intended
to test their proficiency in riding. A rope was
stretched across the street at a certain height, and
from it were suspended by the feet two live geese,
their heads, necks, and wings firmly secured with
strong packthread. On either side stood a member
of the company, having in one hand a pole, with
which he propped up the rope, and in the other a
long whip. Presently up came the butchers, two
and two, riding spirited horses without saddles,
and preceded by trumpets and the prizes for which
they were to contend—silk handkerchiefs or a pair
of silver spoons tied up with ribbons. They were
all lightly clad, even in the most severe weather,

and took up their position in order at a certain |

distance from the rope, till, at a given signal, the
chief journeyman, or a young master, if he liked to

join in the sport, and were a bachelor, rode under

the rope, all the others following him in due
course. ‘The first time they passed under the rope
each contented himself with giving the wretched
geese a blow on the head with the flat of his hand
to put them out of their misery. The course led
them round the Town Hall, and then brought
them back in front of the rope again. This time
the real trial began, and consisted in the en-
deavour to pull the goose’s head off by sheer
physical strength. This was rendered all the more
difficult by the packthread fastenings, and the men
with the whips, who applied them vigorously to
the horses, just as the unlucky wights thought
themselves sure of their prize. On they went,
whether they liked it or not, with a sudden caper,
much to the wild merriment of the spectators,
whose entertainment was thus «considerably pro-

Each man tried his luck several times, till
aie

longed.