22 OKHAMANDAL MARINE ZOOLOGY PART II 



mation. At this rate the produce of the past 300 years would amount to a total of 

 750,000,000 shells ; the 120 sinistral shells believed to exist now thus give the infinitesimal 

 ratio of one shell to 65 millions of normal ones, and this proportion undoubtedly gives a 

 substantially accurate idea of the great rarity of the abnormal form. 



Among the ignorant who usually have never even seen a Valampuri chank, the belief 

 is prevalent in Tamil South India that it blows of its own accord during the night ; 

 even the Roman Catholic chank divers of Tuticorin entertain this quaint superstition, 

 and say that the shell is specially clamorous on Tuesday and Friday nights ! A yogi 

 when controlling or retaining his breath is also credited with hearing the sound of a 

 Valampuri chank blowing within his abdomen though why the rumbling should be that 

 of a Valampuri and not of an ordinary chank is hard to answer. 



Worship of the chank as one of the three essential articles used in domestic worship 

 among Brahmans should occupy an important part in the daily liturgy of this priestly 

 caste and in the Brahma Karma, the work which sets forth in minute detail the order and 

 phrasing of the sacred rites of the Brahmans, the prayer to the sacred chank may be 

 translated as follows : 



Taking the chank in his hand the Brahman recites : " At the mouth of this shell 

 is the God of the Moon, on its sides is Varuna, on its back Prajapati, and on its apex 

 the Ganges, the Sarasvati, and all the other sacred rivers of the three worlds in which 

 they make ablutions according to the command of Vasudeva. 1 In this chank is the 

 chief of the Brahmans (Brahmendra or Brahmanaspati). This is why we must worship 

 the sacred chank. Glory to thee, sacred shell, blessed by all the gods, born in the sea, 

 and formerly held by Vishnu in his hand. We adore the sacred chank and meditate 

 upon it. May we be filled with joy ! 



' I offer (to the chank) everything needful for worship perfumes, rice and flowers." 



Here they make the sign of the chank, but Bourquin (" Annales du Musee 

 Guimet," Vol. VII, p. 45), from whom I quote, says he was never able to discover the 

 manner of making this sign and I have had a like ill-success. 



While the above is a portion of the liturgy which the head of each Brahman family 

 is theoretically bound to recite daily, under present-day conditions this is impossible, 

 and in fact it is only on specially important puja or holy days that even a greatly curtailed 

 version of this and the accompanying prayers is recited by the head of the family, and 

 this, too, only in thoroughly orthodox families. The curtailed prayer usually runs. " Oh, 

 chank shell, thou wast produced in the sea and art held by Vishnu in his hand. Thou 

 art worshipped by all the gods. Receive my homage." 



In this connection an interesting chank legend centres round the temple tank in 

 Tirukalikundram, a holy Saivite village in the Chingleput District, some 37 miles south- 

 ward of Madras. The village munsiff, Mr. T. A. Vedachala Gurukkal. to whom I am in- 

 debted for the following particulars, states that once every twelve years a chank rises 



1 One of the names of Krishna. 



