SNAIL FOLK 



be to call human beings " white-oaks," for no man 

 is an oak and only a certain proportion are white. 

 But it is equally illogical to indicate snails and 

 oysters and octopuses by the term " shellfish " for 

 none of them are fish and many have no shells. How- 

 ever we cannot give up " starfish " or " crayfish " 

 and editors have an unreasonable objection to newly 

 coined words. Mollusk is really the best general 

 name, for all shellfish are soft. Whichever way we 

 look at it, the English language is very often scant 

 when we require exactness. 



My snail was a periwinkle, or winkle as they 

 called him in the days of Good King Wenceslas, 

 and of gastronomic King Hal as well, for dozens 

 of generations of humans have proved hundreds 

 of generations of winkles palatable. How winkle 

 came first to Bermuda no one knows, but he has 

 followed the ships of men from England to New 

 York and elsewhere and by one of the one thousand 

 accidents has made Nonsuch his home. With his 

 fellow countryfolk — the house sparrows — he has 

 thrived and is found occasionally with other shells 

 on the rocks. 



At present he was quiet and conservative — deep 

 within his shell with his door shut tight — thinking 

 the periwinklish thoughts which one does when deep 

 within one's shell. I filled his dish with salt water, 

 and however tight his brown mahogany swirl of a 

 door seemed to be, yet knowledge of the change in 

 the outer element somehow trickled through. The 

 lid lifted — a dark finger of a tentacle wavered 



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