1^2 



material used in coating the incense sticks burned before 

 shrines, or used in native shops. In Tamil these sticks 

 go by the names of uthupaththi [sm^u^^) or sambiranik- 

 kuchchi (^ffirihi9jr!r6S3fl6B^ffS) ; the best quality sells at the 

 rate of i or 2 for 3 pies, while inferior sorts retail at from 

 •J to I pie each. The operculum itself is called naganam 

 or navanam (^/srasim-ih or mieusKffrih^ ; the usual rate is 2 

 annas per palam (= 8 tolas or just over 3 oz.). 



(r) Assembly calls. 



A call on a chank-shell is frequently employed upon 

 native-owned plantations in South India and Ceylon to 

 summon the workpeople to their duties : there can be no 

 doubt that these long drawn out and penetrating booming 

 calls are particularly well adapted to this purpose. 



In the Laccadive Islands all the inhabitants are 

 required under penalty to attend the call of the chank, 

 sounded in cases of emergency and public requirement. 

 Among these are counted the beaching of boats and the 

 inauguration of rat hunts. 



To conclude this account of the miscellaneous uses 

 to which the chank is put and of which the foregoing 

 summary has by no means exhausted the list, the follow- 

 ing instance of the ingenuity of the Indian countryman 

 may not be amiss. For it I am indebted to Mr. C. A. 

 Innes, I.C.S. Apropos of a flight of winged termites, he 

 told me that once when travelling in the Madura district, 

 he chanced upon a low-caste man engaged upon some 

 mysterious work on a large termite anthill : the man had 

 a chank-shell in his hand. When asked what he was 

 doing, he replied, "I am catching white ants to eat," and 

 gave a blast upon the chank at one of the major openings 

 into the hill. Hardly had he finished ere crowds of ants 

 sallied forth from other openings, and these the man 

 scooped up in handsful and ate without any preparation. 



