TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES 31 
All we know is that widely spread was the belief that certain 
birds called Barnicle or Barnacle Geese, which one would think 
were not common enough to be familiar, owed their origin 
to an aberrant crustacean Lepas anatifera, from which they 
were generated. 
Even as late as the sixteenth century, a naturalist of so 
high repute as William Turner could not shake himself free 
from the accumulated evidence of this absurd story, the truth 
of which had been solemnly vouched for by one Octavian, an 
Irish ecclesiastic of his acquaintance. 
Legends of the Raven.—Anglo-Saxon Arcefen, from its cry. 
Hrefnes-fot, raven-foot. Proverbs respecting the Raven are 
many. Aninteresting account is given by the Rev. C. Swainson 
of this bird in “ Provincial Names and Folk-lere ”’ (1885), 
under the headings of :— 
Folk-lore of the Raven. 
The Raven in Northern Mythology. 
The Raven as prognosticating Death. 
The Raven Stone. 
The Swallow-Stone —The legend of the Swallow-stone 
ran as follows. It was supposed by the peasantry of France 
that the Swallow knew how and where to find a certain 
small round pebble, or as some say, the polished operculum of 
a shell from the shore. This talisman had the marvellous 
power of giving sight to its young ones when applied to their 
still unopened eyes, and it was soon discovered that it was 
efficacious also for human ophthalmia. The legend, which is 
told at greater length in “La Normandie Romanesque,” by 
Amélie Bosquet, flourished most in Brittany, but it had a 
standing elsewhere, with some variation of detail.* 
Eleventh Century. 
Fatconry AND DomeEspay Book. 
England in the Hleventh Century. The Pastime of 
Falconry.—Falconry seems to have grown in favour with 
each succeeding generation. History abundantly proves that 
in the estimation both of the Saxons and their conquerors the 
Normans, to be the bearer cf 2 Hewk wes one cf the chief 
* 1845, p. 217. For an excellent account of this legend see Harting’s 
“«Essays on Sport end Netural History,” p, 277, 
