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Goose pulling (also called gander pulling, goose riding or pulling the goose) was a blood sport practiced in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, England and North America from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The sport involved fastening a live goose with a well-greased head to a rope or pole that was stretched across a road. A man riding on horseback at a full gallop would attempt to grab the bird by the neck in order to pull the head off.〔"Dutch". Bird, Thomas E. in ''Encyclopedia of ethnicity and sports in the United States'', eds. Kirsch, George B.; Harris, Othello; Nolte, Claire Elaine. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2000. ISBN 978-0-313-29911-7〕 Sometimes a live hare was substituted. It is still practised today, using a dead goose, in parts of Belgium and in Grevenbicht in the Netherlands as part of Shrove Tuesday and in some towns in Germany as part of the Shrove Monday celebrations. ==The practice== Philip Parsons, writing in 1771, described how it was carried out in England: The sport was challenging, as the oiling of the goose's neck made it difficult to retain a grip on it, and the bird's flailing made it difficult to target in the first place. Sometimes the organisers would add an extra element of difficulty; one writer describing an event in the American South witnessed "a nigger, with a long whip in hand ... stationed on a stump, about two rods (m / 32 ft ) from the gander, with orders to strike the horse of the puller as he passed by."〔p. 157. INSIDE VIEW OF SLAVERY: OR A TOUR AMONG THE PLANTERS, by C.G. PARSONS, 1855.〕 The reaction of the startled horse would make it even more difficult for the puller to grab the goose as he went by. Many riders missed altogether; others broke the goose's neck without snapping off the head. The American poet and novelist William Gilmore Simms wrote that Goose pulling is attested in the Netherlands as early as the start of the 17th century; the poet Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero referred to it in his 1622 poem ''Boerengeselschap'' ("Company of Peasants"), describing how a party of peasants going to a goose-pulling contest near Amsterdam end up in a brutal brawl, leading to the lesson that it is best for townspeople to stay away from peasant pleasures. The Dutch settlers of North America brought it to their colony of New Netherland and from there it was transmitted to English-speaking Americans. Goose-pulling was taken up by those at the lower levels in American society,〔 though it could attract the interest of all social strata. In the pre-Civil War South, slaves and whites competed alongside each other in goose-pulling contests watched by "all who walk in the fashionable circles." Charles Grandison Parsons described the course of one such contest held in Milledgeville, Georgia in the 1850s: The prizes of a goose-pulling contest were trivial – often the dead bird itself, other times contributions from the audience or rounds of drinks. The main draw of such contests for the spectators was the betting on the competitors, sometimes for money or more often for alcoholic drinks.〔 One contemporary observer commented that "the whoopin', and hollerin', and screamin', and bettin', and excitement, beats all; there ain't hardly no sport equal to it." Goose-pulling contests were often held on Shrove Tuesday and Easter Monday, with competitors "engaged in this sport not just for its excitement but also to prove they were "real men," physically strong, brave, competitive and willing to take risks." Unlike some other contemporary blood sports, goose pulling was often frowned upon. In New Amsterdam (modern New York) in 1656, Director General Pieter Stuyvesant issued ordinances against goose pulling, calling it "unprofitable, heathenish and pernicious."〔 Many contemporary writers professed disgust at the sport; an anonymous reviewer in the ''Southern Literary Messenger'', writing in 1836, described goose pulling as "a piece of unprincipled barbarity not infrequently practised in the South and West."〔Anonymous, review of ''Georgia Scenes''. ''Southern Literary Messenger'', p. 289, vol. II, no. 4. March 1836〕 William Gilmore Simms described it as "one of those sports which a cunning devil has contrived to gratify a human beast. It appeals to his skill, his agility, and strength; and is therefore in some degree grateful to his pride; but, as it exercises these qualities at the expense of his humanity, it is only a medium by which his better qualities are employed as agents for his worser nature."〔 The sport appears to have been relatively uncommon in Britain, as all references are to it as a curiosity practiced somewhere else. The 1771 Parsons account locates it in "Northern parts of England" and assumes it is unknown in Newmarket in Southern England. In a satirical letter to ''Punch'' in 1845 it is regarded as a barbarous practice known only to the bloodthirsty Spaniards, like bull-fighting. The serious work ''Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain'', of 1849, calls it "Goose-riding" and says it has been "practiced in Derbyshire within the memory of persons now living", and that the antiquary Francis Douce (1757–1834) had a friend who remembered it "when young" in Edinburgh in Scotland. From these references it would appear to have died out in Britain by the end of the 18th century. Something similar was practiced in Spain, and a variant lived on in New Mexico for some time. A rooster was buried in the sand up to its neck, and riders would try to pull it up as they rode past. This was later done with bottles buried in the sand. "Rooster racing in the Hispanic villages of northern New Mexico exists only in the history books and in the minds of a few men and women who ... still recall the popular sport of yesteryear". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Goose pulling」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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