le. I have never before met with these inscriptions in the large
number of dishes of this kind which I have examined. The have been
termed alms-dishes, and are used still in parochial collections in
France, as doubtless they have been in England. They were also used in
ancient times in the ceremony of baptism, and they are called baptismal
basins, by some foreign writers. This use is well illustrated by the
very curious early Flemish painting in the Antwerp Gallery, representing
the seven sacraments. The acolyte, standing near the font, bears such a
dish, and a napkin. The proper use of these latten dishes was, as I
believe, to serve as a laver, carried round at the close of the banquet
in old times, as now at civic festivities. They often bear devices of a
sacred character; but it is probable that they were only occasionally
used for any scared purpose, and are more properly to be regarded as
part of the domestic appliances of former times.

ALBERT WAY.

* * * * *

BARNACLES.

In Brand's _Popular Antiquities_, vol. iii. pp. 361, 362., there is an
account given of _the barnacle_, "a well-known kind of shell-fish, which
is found sticking on the bottoms of ships," and with regard to which the
author observes, that "it seems hardly credible in this enlightened age,
that so gross an error in natural history should so long have
prevailed," as that this shell-fish should become changed into "a
species of goose." The author then quotes Holinshed, Hall,
Virgidemiarum, Marston, and Gerard; but he does not make the slightest
reference to Giraldus Cambrensis, who is his _Topographia Hiberniae_
first gave the account of the barnacle, and of that account the writers
referred to by Brand were manifestly but the copyists.

The passage referring to "the barnacle" will be found in the _Topog.
Hiber._ lib. i. e. xi. I annex a translation of it, as it may be
considered interesting, when compared with the passages quoted in
Brand:--

"There are," says Giraldus, "in this country (Ireland) a great
number of birds called barnacles (Bernacre), and which nature
produces in a manner that is contrary to the laws of nature. The
birds are not unlike to ducks, but they are somewhat smaller in
size. They make their first appearance as drops of gum upon the
branches of firs that are immersed in running waters; and then they
are next seen hanging like sea-weed from the wood, becom