THE GOOSE QUESTION. 



567 



pear to any one to be fabulous, we might adduce the testimony not 

 only of the whole people who dwell on the coasts of England, Ireland, 

 and Scotland, but also that of the illustrious historiographer Gyraldus 

 who has written so eloquently of the history of Ireland, that the bar- 

 nacles are produced in no other way. But since it is not very safe to 

 trust to popular reports, and as I was, considering the singularity of 



Fig. 2. 



The Goose-Tree. 



" They spawne, as it were, in March and Aprill ; the Geese are found in Maie and June, and 

 come to fulnesse of feathers in the moneth after. And thus hairing, through God's assist- 

 ance, discoursed somewhat at large of Grasses, Herhes, Shrubs, Trees, Mosses, and certaine 

 excrescences of the earth, with other things moe incident to the Historie thereof, we con- 

 clude and ende our present volume, with this woonder of England. For which God's name 

 he euer honoured and praised."— (Gerabde, "Herball," 1633.) 



the thing, rather skeptical even with respect to the testimony of Gy- 

 raldus — while I was thinking over the subject — I consulted Octavian, 

 an Irish clergyman, whose strict integrity gave me the utmost confi- 

 dence in him, as to whether he considered Gyraldus worthy to be 

 trusted in what he had written. This clergyman then professed him- 

 self ready to take his oath upon the Gospels, that what Gyraldus had 



