[Illustration: FIG. 17.--Two drawings on pottery of modified geese, from Perrot's "Ossuaire de Crète." The three lines above the back of the upper figure probably represent the legs or cirri of the barnacle, which are represented by two jointed appendages in the geese shown in Fig. 16.]
M. Houssay further points out the existence on some of the Mykenæan pottery of drawings (see "L'Ossuaire de Crète," by MM. Perrot and Chipiez) of leaves attached to tree-like stems. These leaves (Fig. 18, a, b, c) exhibit the same markings ("venation") which we see on the bodies of the geese in Fig. 16, especially the middle one of the five. The leaves (or fruits?) copied by M. Houssay from the Mykenæan pottery are attached in a series to a stem--but no one, at present, has suggested what plant it is which is represented. The corners of the leaf or fruit to the right and left of its stalk are thrown into a spiral--and the half leaf or half fruit represented in Fig. 18, b, leads us on to that drawn in Fig. 18, c, in which the spiral corner is slightly modified in curvature so as to resemble the head and neck of the goose as drawn in Fig. 16. Though Fig. 18, c, is as yet devoid of legs or wing feathers (compare Fig. 16, d), the black 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. 16. As these are associated in the decoration of the Mykenæan artists, it is fairly evident that the intention has been to manipulate 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 emphasize or idealize its points of resemblance to a barnacle.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.--Leaves from the tree, drawn on a Mykenæan pot which, according to M. Perrot, are fancifully designed so as to assume step by step (a, b, c) the form of a goose. This appears either to represent the tree which, according 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 gradually pass into the semblance of a goose, is strongly emphasized by the purely fanciful "venation" of the leaf which agrees with the equally fanciful ornament of the bodies of the geese in Fig. 16, especially the middle one of the series.]