CHAPTER XV 



MORE AS TO THE BARNACLE AND THE 

 GOOSE 



IT is clear that there was a widespread tradition 

 known to the learned in the early centuries of the 

 Christian era, according to which there existed in some 

 distant Eastern land a tree which bore buds or fruits 

 which became converted into birds. Connected with 

 this, and perhaps really a part of it, there existed a 

 tradition that marine " barnacles " gave birth to geese 

 from within their shells, or are in some way converted 

 into geese. The two stories were in some localities and 

 narrations combined, though in others they were distinct. 

 On the coast of Ireland the early missionaries of the 

 Church (learned men acquainted with the traditions of 

 their time) identified the migratory brent goose with the 

 bird said to be produced by the barnacle ; and else- 

 where, on the Scottish coast, the barnacles were (it was 

 reported) found growing on trees. There is no such 

 resemblance between barnacles and brent geese as to 

 have suggested to the Irish monks the regular and 

 natural conversion of one into the other. It seems most 

 probable that the learned churchmen knew the traditional 

 story already before arriving in Ireland, and applied it to 

 the barnacles and the geese which they discovered 

 around them. Eventually the word " barnacle " without 

 qualification was applied to the geese, as we see!, in 

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