338 EVERY MAN THINKS HIS OWN GEESE SWANS Parents are conceited over their children; men love their own country, district and town. It is natural that in forming this proverb, reference should have been made to geese and swans. The two birds have many things in common, yet they are not held in the same respect. Geese are poor men's possessions while swans are seldom seen save in lakes belonging to parks and gardens. In olden times the swan was called a royal bird for the sovereigns of England appropriated those that had strayed from their proper estates, so that it became the custom for those in possession to establish a prior claim by marking the beaks of their birds. Geese belonged to the barnyards and adjacent pools or ponds, were good for food and for prognosticating the approach of foul weather, while swans were held to be sacred. Men looked at their graceful forms and movements as they floated on the water and reverently regarded them as birds of prophecy, to be sheltered and watched over with the greatest care so as to be ready for use in case of need in the taking of the eagle, has oaths and for conjuring. Their feathers were thought to be potent as talismans and their song never heard save when they were about to die. No bird, with the possible exception of been more frequently used in heraldry, and legends and fairy stories are abundant in which people have been temporarily changed to swans. "It may be," says Charles de Kay (A.D. 1848-) "that the great river Elbe that springs from the 'sea coast' of Bohemia splits the realms of Saxony and Prussia in two, and reaches ocean in the ancient free commonwealth of Hamburg, was first named from the magic bird whose name was the same as elf." A child's book entitled Peter Prim's Pride, published in 1810, contained a picture of a mother fondly patting the chin of a stubbed nose daughter, while another ill kept child stood near awaiting parental approval. Beneath the picture was inscribed the old proverbial saying: "Every crow thinks her own young whitest." Two thousand and more years ago the wise fabulist told a story of an argument between a sow and a dog in which the sow claimed that its children were superior to those of the dog because they could see at birth, whereas the children of his opponent were born blind. There is a phrase in common use that seems to affirm an opposite truth, for it is said, "All his swans are geese"; but the contradiction is only apparent for the phrase is rarely, if ever, used in referring to children. Its application is generally confined to boasters whose claims cannot be substantiated. The boaster would have others believe that his tales are as true and wonderful as birds in the king's garden, whereas they are more like common geese than royal swans. "Jupiter issued a proclamation to all the beasts, and offered a prize to one who, in his judgment, produced the most beautiful offspring. Among the rest came the monkey carrying a baby monkey in her arms, a hairless, flat nosed little fright. When they saw it, the gods all burst into peal on peal of laughter, but the monkey hugged her little one to her and said, '‘Jupiter may give the prize to whomsoever he likes but I shall always think my baby the most beautiful of them all.""-ESOP, BEFORE B.C. 561, V. S. Vernon Jones' Translation. "At this same ancient feast of Capulet's "By'r lady, friends! (quoth I), this maketh a show, To show you more unnatural than the crow; The crow thinketh her own birds fairest in the wood, "This proverb intimates that an inbred philanty runs through the whole race of flesh and blood, and that self-love is the mother of vanity, pride and mistake. It turns a man's geese into swans, his dunghill poultry into pheasants and his lambs into venison. It blinds the understanding, perverts the judgment, depraves the reason of the otherwise most modest distinguishers of truth and falsity. It makes a man so fondly conceited of himself, that he prefers his own art for its excellency, his own skill for its perfection, his own compositions for their wit and his own productions for their beauty. It makes even his vices seem to him virtues, and his deformities beauties; for so every crow thinks her own bird fairest, though never so black and ugly."— NATHAN BAILEY, A.D. 1721, Diverse Proverbs. ALLIED PROVERBS A son, although full of faults, is perfect in his father's eyes. A son, although he is a lump of earth (worthless) still is the (Gaelic). (Gaelic). Ebery John Crow t'inks he own picknie white. (British Guiana). Ebery crow cry fo' he own calf. (British Guiana). Every crow thinks her own birds whitest. (Scotch). Every monkey thinks its young ones pretty. (Tamil, Louisiana Creole). Every mother's child is handsome. (German). Every mother thinks it is on her own child the sun rises. (Irish). Every owl thinks all her children the fairest. (Danish). Every owl thinks her young ones beautiful. (English). Fowl tread 'pon he chicken, but he no tread haad. (British Guiana). If they (my children) were a thousand, they would be dearer than my eyes. (Arabian). If our child squints, our neighbor's child has a cast in both eyes. (Livonian). Ilka man thinks his ain craw blackest. (Scotch). I love my dear one were he a black slave. (Syrian). Monkey never says its young are ugly. (Trinidad Creole). My heart is for my child and my child's heart is for a stone. (Syrian). My own heart (I will sacrifice) rather than my children. (West African). My own son is a son, a stranger's good for nothing. (Hindustani). No ape but swears he has the handsomest children. (English, German). Our own child is tender, another's is (as tough as) leather. Marathi). Sweepings, but from our own field; halt and lame, but our own child-hence valuable. (Marathi). The beetle is a beauty in the eyes of its mother. (Arabian, Egyptian). The beetle is a bride in the arms of its mother. (Arabian). |