136 



DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



Fig. i8. — Leaves from 

 the tree, drawn on a 

 Mykenaean pot which, 

 according to M. Eerrot, 

 are fancifully designed 

 so as to assume step by 

 step (a, b, c) the form 

 of a goose. This ap- 

 pears either to represent 

 the tree which, accord- 

 ing to legend, produced 

 birds as buds on its 

 branches, or to be a 

 fanciful design which 

 gave rise to that legend. 

 The artist's intention of 

 making the leaf gradu- 

 ally pass into the sem- 

 blance of a, goose, is 

 strongly emphasized by 

 the purely fanciful 

 " venation " of the 

 leaf which agrees with 

 the equally fanciful or- 

 nament of the bodies of 

 the geese in Fig. i6, 

 especially the middle 

 one of the series. 



band along the belly with the band 

 of vertical markings above it agrees 

 closely with the design on the body 

 of the middle goose of the series 

 drawn in Fig. i6. As these are 

 associated in the decoration of the 

 Mykenaean artists, it is fairly evident 

 that the intention has been to mani- 

 pulate the drawing of the leaf or 

 fruit so as to make it resemble the 

 drawing of the goose, whilst that in 

 its turn is modified so as to empha- 

 size or idealize its points of resem- 

 blance to a barnacle. 



It is true enough that the drawings 

 from Mykenaean pots here submitted 

 cannot be considered as a complete 

 demonstration that the legend of 

 the tree-goose originated with these 

 drawings. But it must be remem- 

 bered that we have only a small 

 number of examples of this pottery 

 surviving from a thousand years B.C. 

 It is probable that the fanciful de- 

 corative design of a master artist was 

 copied and used in the painting of 

 hundreds of pots by mere workmen 

 or inferior craftsmen, and that more 

 complete and impressive designs 

 showing the fanciful transformation 

 of leaf or fruit to goose, and of goose 

 to barnacle, existed both before and 

 after the making of the particular 

 pots and jars which have come 



