138 DIVERSIONS OF A NATURALIST 



came through many generations to them. Mykenaean 

 art seems to have migrated with Mykenaean settlers to 

 the remote region of the Caucasus. In the necropolis 

 of Koban and other remote settlements, Mykenaean 

 designs in bronze and gold — including the horse in 

 flying gallop and octopods transformed to bull's heads — 

 have been found and pictured (Ernest Chantre, "Recherches 

 anthropologique dans Caucase," 4 vols, : Paris, 1886). 

 They are believed to date from 500 B.C. It is possible 

 that in such remote regions or in some of the Greek 

 islands the pictures of the tree-goose and the barnacle 

 may have survived until the new dispensation — that 

 is, until the days of the Byzantine Empire. Once we 

 can trace either the pictures or the legend up to that 

 point, there is no difficulty about admitting the radiation 

 of the wonderful story from that centre to the Jews of 

 the Kabbalah, to Arabic writers, and so to the learned 

 men of the Christian Church and the seats of learning 

 throughout Europe and a great part of Asia. 



Of the history of the legend during two thousand years 

 we have no actual knowledge. It remains for investiga- 

 tion. But undoubtedly these Mykenaean pottery paint- 

 ings remove the origin of the story to a period two 

 thousand years older than that of the Irish monks. 



One additional fact I may mention as to the exist- 

 ence of the goose and barnacle legend in the East. I 

 am informed that in Java there is, according to " native " 

 story, a shell-fish the animal of which becomes trans- 

 formed into a bird — said to be a kind of snipe — and 

 flies from the shell. I have been shown the shell by a 

 Dutch lady who has lived in Java. It is a large fresh- 

 water mussel, one of the Unionidas. I have failed to 

 obtain, after inquiry, any further information as to the 



