66 BIRDS IN LEGEND 



of their branches fruits in the shape of apples, each con- 

 taining the embryo of a goose, which, when the fruit was 

 ripe, fell into the water and flew away. The other is that 

 the geese were bred from a fungus growing on rotten 

 timber floating at sea, and were first developed in the 

 form of worms in the substance of the wood. 



It is plain that this fable sprang from the similitude 

 to the wings of tiny birds of the feathery arms that 

 sessile barnacles reach out from their shells to clutch from 

 the water their microscopic food, and also to the remote 

 likeness the naked heads and necks of young birds bear 

 to stalked or "whale" barnacles (Lepas). Both these 

 cirripeds are found attached to floating wood, and some- 

 times to tree-branches exposed to waves and to high tides. 

 The deception so agreeable to hungry churchmen was 

 abetted by the etymologies in the older dictionaries. Dr. 

 Murray, editor of The New Oxford Dictionary, asserts, 

 however, that the origin of the word "barnacle" is not 

 known, but that certainly it was applied to the mature 

 goose before its was given to the cirriped. 



Speaking of geese, what is the probable source of the 

 warning "Don't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs" 

 beyond or behind the obvious moral of ^Esop's familiar 

 fable? The only light on the subject that has come to 

 me is the following passage in Bayley's 24 somewhat 

 esoteric book: 



The Hindoos represent Brahma, the Breath of Life, as riding 

 upon a goose, and the Egyptians symbolized Seb, the father of 

 Osiris, as a goose. . . . According to the Hindoo theory of 

 creation the Supreme Spirit laid a golden egg resplendent as the 

 sun, and from the golden egg was born Brahma, the progenitor 

 of the Universe. The Egyptians had a similar story, and de- 

 scribed the sun as an egg laid by the primeval goose, in later 



