t remember
all that happened to us on the road. Once when we were talking together
on the journey, the Bacchanten said it was the custom in Meissen and
Silesia for the scholars to steal geese and ducks, and other such food;
and nothing was done to them on that account, if they could escape from
those to whom the things belonged. One day, when not far from a
village, we saw a large flock of geese, and the herdsman was not with
them; then I inquired of my fellow-Schuetzen when we should be in
Meissen; as then I thought I might venture to kill the geese; they
answered, 'Now we are there.' So I took a stone, threw it at one of the
geese, and hit it on the leg; the others flew away, but the lamed one
could not rise. I took another stone, and hit it on the head, so that
it fell down. I ran up and caught the goose by the neck, carried it
under my coat, and went along the road through the village. Then came
the gooseherd running after me, and called aloud in the village, 'The
boy has stolen my goose!' I and my fellow-Schuetzen fled away, and the
feet of the goose hung out behind my coat. The peasants came out with
spears to throw at us, and ran after us. When I saw that I could not
escape with the goose, I let it fall, and sprang out of the road into
the bushes; but two of my fellows ran along the street, and were
overtaken by two peasants. Then they fell down on their knees, and
asked for mercy, as they had done them no harm; and when the peasants
saw that it was not they who had killed the goose, they returned to the
village, taking the goose with them. But when I saw how they hastened
after my fellows, I was in great trouble, and said to myself: 'Ah, my
God! I think I have not blessed myself this day.' (For I had been
taught to bless myself every morning.) When the peasants returned to
the village, they found our Bacchanten in the public-house, for these
had gone forward; and the peasants desired that they would pay for the
goose: it would have been about two batzen; but I know not whether or
no they paid. When they joined us again, they laughed, and asked how it
had happened. I excused myself, as I had imagined it was the custom of
the country; to which they said it was not yet the right moment.

"Another time a murderer came to us in the wood, eleven miles on this
side of Nuremberg, who wished to play with our Bacchanten, that he
might delay us till his fellows joined him; but we had an honest fellow
amongst us called Anth