246 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



the man hesitated, then prevaricated, and it was only 

 under the threat of prosecution that he told how the pic- 

 ture was obtained, and agreed that the rightful owner 

 should have the chief part of the sum for which it was to 

 be sold. We leave the joy of the poor widow to be con- 

 ceived ; she was too busy in earning bread for her family 

 to miss the picture ; she was not aware that it was gone, 

 until she heard that, placed in the little grotto of oyster- 

 shells as a childish freak, it had thus so singularly obtained 

 for her the means of comfort and improvement she could 

 not have hoped to possess." (b) 



On the 25th of July, says Brand, the antiquary, being 

 St. James the Apostle's Day, the priests of old were wont 

 to bless apples ; and a popular belief too, in 1588, though 

 generally ignored in the more enlightened days in which 

 we live, was, that whoever ate oysters on that day would 

 not be without money for the remainder of the year. This 

 is very probable, for without they were selected with great 

 care, disease and even death might follow. This conjunc- 

 tion of apples and oysters on St. James's Day may have 

 suggested Bianca's remark in the " Taming of the Shrew," 

 when comparing the resemblance of the old Pedant to that 

 of Vincentio, which she remarks was as complete as that 

 of an oyster to an apple. 



One must, therefore, take care not to eat oysters 

 during the months of June and July, because they are 

 unwholesome on account of the spawning-time ; and also 

 be careful in their selection in August. There are instances 

 when persons, after having eaten oysters during these 

 months, have become ill, and have even died. Last 

 summer (1862), at Ostend, thirty persons were taken ill, 



(b] " Adventures of an Oyster," pp. 167-8. 



