HORNELL THE INDIAN CONCH 35 



on the forehead or round the necks of bullocks and ponies, it is gradually dying out ; 

 in Bellary the Collector states that it still prevails in Bellary, Hospet and Hadagalli 

 taluks in respect to bullocks, but adds that the people do not now attach any religious 

 or secular significance to it. In Anantapur the Collector states that the custom is not 

 now followed in that district. 



In Madras City it is quite common to see it and there also I have seen a shell hung 

 by a chain or a cord round the neck of a cow-buffalo when in milk to prevent her being 

 " overlooked " and her milk thereby dried up prematurely. In country villages this 

 latter custom is not infrequent both in regard to ordinary cows and to cow-buffaloes. 

 In the Madura, Trichinopoly, Salem and adjacent districts a shell is often hung round 

 the necks of jutka and pack ponies, not only by Hindu owners, but also by Muhammadans. 

 In Madura specially valued sheep occasionally are similarly guarded from evil, and in 

 the same district I have seen milch-goats protected in a like manner. In all these cases 

 the shells used are of small size, the great majority being dead or sub-fossil shells from the 

 mud-beds of Ceylon. They are the same as are sold as feeding spouts for infants in 

 every Tamil bazaar. A hole is bored or broken in the back and the rope passed through 

 this and out at the mouth of the shell. The surface is generally roughly engraved in 

 a coarse spiral or scroll pattern. 



Used probably for a similar purpose may have been the handsomely engraved large 

 chank shell obtained from an oblong sarcophagus of red pottery found in the prehistoric 

 burial site at Perambair in the south of Chingleput district. The size is much greater 

 than any I have ever seen used to decorate ordinary cattle ; no ordinary person owned 

 it we may be certain probably it decorated the forehead of a bull or possibly of an 

 elephant belonging to a man of great local importance. From the same tombs came 

 three other handsomely decorated chank ornaments, two of which were probably 

 ornaments for the hair (see p. 41 for further particulars). 



Once only have I seen ' more than a single shell hung round the neck of any animal, 

 but that in ancient times a different habit at least occasionally prevailed is possible, 

 to judge from the string of 16 small chank shells from a barrow near Guntakal junction 

 in the Anantapur district, now to be seen in Madras Museum. All these shells have 

 had the apices broken in and partly rubbed down and each has the thickest part of the 

 body perforated from side to side so permitting them to be strung together. They 

 appear to have formed a necklace, but whether they were suspended round the neck of 

 a bull or may be hung like a chain of office round the neck of some person of importance, 

 we have no means of determining. 



In Malabar the chank is little in evidence, but Logan (" Malabar Manual," 1887. 

 Vol. I, p. 175) records a belief there prevalent that a cow will stop giving milk unless a 

 shell (not necessarily a chank) is tied conspicuously about her horns and at Tanur, 

 Malabar, I have seen valuable sheep with shells other than chanks hung round the neck. 



1 At Tirupalakufli, on Palk Strait. 



C -2 



