Actually (no joke here) this refers to hanging game, to let it season (read 'rot') a little. And "high" doesn't mean vertical distance ub this application.

When the hunter brought the pheasant, duck, or goose home, it wouldn't normally go into the pot or oven; it would be hung by the feet from the rafters (I presume after disembowelment), so that the bacteria could work on it for a while(although the home folks didn't know that was going on). I'm talking about room, or maybe cellar, temperature, not refrigerated.

After a while, as you might expect, it would get "high". In some areas, it was not said to be ready to cook and eat until one could reach up and pull on the goose, and it was "ripe" enough to pull the body away from the feet, which were tied to the rafter.

Only a difference in degree from aged beef, which commands a premium price. My grandfather, an old-time butcher, maintained that beef wasn't ready to eat until it had aged long enough to develop a half inch of mold on the outside.

Dave Oesterreich