BARNACLE GEESE GOOSE BARNACLES. 297 



In another part of the same poem, Du Bartas, referring 

 to animals growing without natural parentage, writes : 



" Ainsi souz soi Bbote 6s glaqeuses campagnes 

 Tardif, void des oysons qrfon appelle Gravaignes, 

 Qui sontfils (comme on dif] de certains arbrisseaux 

 Qui leur feuille feconde anime dans les eaux. 

 Ainsi le vieil fragment d'une barque se change 

 En des canards volans : 6 changement estrange ! 

 Mesme corps fut jadis arbre "verd,puis vaisseau 

 Naguieres champignon, et maintenant oyseau." * 



Of this, Sylvester gives the following English version : 



" So slow Bootes underneath him sees, 

 In th' icy isles, those goslings hatched on trees, 

 Whose fruitful leaves, falling into the water, 

 Are turned, they say, to living fowls soon after ; 

 So rotten sides of broken ships do change, 

 To barnacles, O, transformation strange ! 

 'Twas first a green tree ; then a gallant hull ; 

 Lately a mushroom ; then a flying gull." 



Thus this extraordinary belief held sway, and remained 

 strong and invincible, although from time to time some 

 man of sense and independent thought attempted to turn 

 the tide of popular error. Albertus Magnus (who died 

 1280) showed its absurdity, and declared that he had seen 

 the bird referred to lay its eggs and hatch them in the 

 ordinary way. Roger Bacon (who died in 1294) also con- 

 tradicted it, and Belon, in 1551, treated it with ridicule and 

 contempt. Olaus Wormius f seems to have believed in it, 

 though he wrote cautiously about it. Olaus Magnus (1553) 

 mentions it, and apparently accepts it as a fact, occurring 

 in the Orkneys, on the authority of "a Scotch historian 



* La premiere semaine , 6 e jour. 

 f Museum, p. 257. 



