ANCIENT AND MEDIAEVAL BELIEFS 13 



We find this tale of the goose tree as early as the beginning 

 of the eleventh century in the works of Cardinal Peter 

 Damian (1007-1072). The English encyclopaedist Alexander 

 Neckam (1157-1217) considered that birds are formed from 

 the resin of conifers on contact with the salt water of the sea. 

 Furthermore, this story of the vegetable origin of ducks and 

 geese became so widely accepted that their meat was used as 

 lenten fare though this was later forbidden by a special order 

 of Pope Innocent III (1 198-1216). 



But in spite of this, almost three centuries later, at the end 

 of the fifteenth century, the nobleman Leo von Rozmital 

 described a dinner gi\en in his honour in London by the 

 Duke of Clarence at which, as a hot dish described as fish 

 (for lenten fare), were served ducks, which there generate 

 themselves from ' worms ' in the sea. However, Rozmital 

 remarks that the taste of these ' fish ' was exactly like that 

 of ducks. ^* 



It is interesting that the story of the goose tree persisted 

 until the end of the sixteenth and even the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century. A series of authors describe their 

 personal observations on this subject and even give more or 

 less fantastic drawings showing how the birds are gradually 

 formed from the fruits of the tree. 



Evidently this legend was based on the naive interpretation 

 of superficial observations of barnacles of a special kind. 

 In the adult state these marine animals attach themselves 

 by a special kind of stalk to rocks, stones, the bottoms of 

 ships and trees which have accidentally fallen into the water. 

 On the shores of the north of Scotland, Ireland and the 

 neighbouring islands this happens at the time when flocks 

 of young Arctic geese fly there from the north. 



These two phenomena were confused and fantasy, not 

 knowing where they came from, drew a picture of the forma- 

 tion of birds from the barnacles found on the branches of 

 trees. It may also be that analogous superficial observations 

 formed the basis for the other stories concerning vegetable 

 lambs. The well-known traveller Odoric di Pordenone (d. 

 1331) was the first to record this. It was related to him by 

 ' reliable ' people that in the Tatar kingdom of Khadli there 

 grew enormous gourds which opened when they were ripe 



