se-and_.

In the same page, the inquirer B. H. C. respecting the word _mammon_, may
like to know that the history of that word has been given at some length in
p. 1. to p. 68. of the Parker Society's edition of Tyndale's _Parable of
the wicked Mammon_, where I have stated that it occurs in a form identical
with the English in the Chaldee Targum of Onkelos on Exod. viii. 21., and
in that of Jonathan on Judges, v. 9., as equivalent to riches; and that in
the Syriac translation it occurs in a form identical with [Greek: Mamona],
in Exod. xxi. 30., as a rendering for [Hebrew: K\holam\P\segol\R], the
price of satisfaction. In B. H. C.'s citation from Barnes, _even_ seems a
misprint for _ever_. The Jews did not again fall into actual idolatry after
the Babylonish captivity; but we are told that in the sight of God
covetousness is idolatry.

HENRY WALTER.

Hasilbury Bryan.

* * * * *

BARNACLES.

(Vol. viii., p. 124.)

A Querist quoting from Porta's _Natural Magic_ the vulgar error that "not
only in Scotland, but in the river Thames, there is a kind of shell-fish
which get out of their shells and grow to be ducks, or such like birds,"
asks, what could give rise to such an absurd belief? Your correspondent
quotes from the English translation of the _Magia Naturalis_, A.D. 1658;
but the tradition is very ancient, Porta the author having died in 1515
A.D. You still find an allusion in _Hudibras_ to those--

"Who from the most refin'd of saints,
As naturally grow miscreants,
As _barnacles_ turn Soland geese,
In th' islands of the Orcades."

The story has its origin in the peculiar formation of the little mollusc
which inhabits the multivalve shell, the _Pentalasmis anatifera_, which by
a fleshy peduncle attaches itself by one end to the bottoms of ships or
floating timber, whilst from the other {224} there protrudes a bunch of
curling and fringe-like cirrhi, by the agitation of which it attracts and
collects its food. These cirrhi so much resemble feathers, as to have
suggested the leading idea of a bird's tail: and hence the construction of
the remainder of the fable, which is thus given with grave minuteness in
_The Herbal, or General Historie of Plants_, gathered by John Gerarde,
Master in Chirurgerie: London, 1597:

"What our eyes have seen, and our hands have touched, we shall declare.
There is a small island in Lancashire called the Pile of Foulders,
wherein a