BAENACLES ; THEIE FACTS AND THEIK FICTIONS. 385 
I historical in its bearings, it will not, I think, he out of place, 
' before we enter upon the region of crude — and, may be, 
I uninteresting — fact, to take a preliminary glance at a myth 
I which has been for so long a period associated with the crea- 
tures which are the subject of the following pages, and traces 
of which even now exist in the nomenclature of the naturalist.* 
Professor Max Muller, in his charming work on the Science 
1 of Language, devotes several pages to the tracing out of this 
I myth through its several phases, which extend over a period of 
1 no less than five centuries. 
It was language, believes this, one of our best philologists, 
which first suggested this myth ; for, as he well observes, “Words 
, without definite meanings are at the bottom of nearly all our 
I philosophical and religious controversies, and even the so-called 
I exact sciences have frequently been led astray by the same 
j Siren voice.” 
! “ Barnacle,” in the sense of the marine animals which are 
the subject of this article, though nearly identical in sound 
j with “ Barnacles ” in the sense of spectacles,! had, originally, 
i no connection whatever with that term, being evidently the 
) diminution of the Latin perna, a ham ; pernacula being 
\ changed into hernacula.X 
) Now whence did the “ Bernicle goose,” the reputed progeny, 
j adult form, or imago, of this supposed mollusc, derive its 
! deceitful and misleading title ? Bernicle geese were caught in 
I Ireland {Hibernia), and were hence probably called originally 
j Hihernicce or Hiherniculoi. By a dropping of the first syllable 
I — which frequently occurs -in Latin words which have found 
j their way into the modern Eomance dialects — the word became 
transformed into Berniculce, a term almost synonymous with 
. the name of the shells, Bernaculce. As the names, then, were 
I identical, or nearly so, “ argal,” the creatures were one and the 
I * “ No man would suspect Linnaeus of having shared the vulgar error, 
i nevertheless he retained the name of Anatifera, or duck-hearing, as given tO' 
j the shell, and that of Bernicula, as given to the goose.” — Max Muller, 
j t In this sense the word may soon he disposed of. It seems to he con- 
j nected with the German Brille, which is a corruption of heryllus — gemma 
I speculum presbiterorum aut veterum d i brill ” (Diefenhach, Glossarium 
j Latino- Germanicum). In Old French the word heride is used in the same 
j sense, and in the dialect of Berri the form herniques is found. The word 
I hernicula appears to he traceable to heryllus, through the intermediate 
t modification herynieida or heryllicula (dimin.). 
!, X “ Appellantur et pernae concharum generis, circa Pontias insulas frequen- 
tissimse. Stant velut suillo crure longo in arena defixae, hiantesque, qua 
limpitudo est, pedali non minus spatio, cibum venantur.” — Pliny, Hist. 
\ Nat. 32, 55. 
VOL. XII. NO. XLIX. C C 
