NO. I (1917) 



RDIBLF MOLLUSCS 



33 



The size of these Olives runs from 50 to 60 millimetres in length. 

 In the sea-fishing hamlets or kuppams in the neighbourhood 

 of Pulicat Lake, their shells, with those of Donax, contribute 

 no inconsiderable bulk to the kuppam kitchen middens there 

 accumulating. 



Rock Whelks (Purpura rudolphi, Lamk. and P. bufo, 



Lamk.). 



Tamil— Par attai (u/r ir ^ilemu^), Fcxmban. 



These shells measuring about 50 millimetres in length, are 

 found along with Turbo on the shingle and stone strewn shoals of 

 the islands and mainland of Ramnad district. They are not 



Fig. 17. — Purpura rudolphi, Lamk., and Purpura kufo, Lamk. x i. 



specially collected, but any found during the search for Turbo are 

 kept and cooked along with the latter by the Valayans who are the 

 chief inhabitants of the Ramnad islands. Other castes are said 

 not to eat these species. 



Strombus and Conus. 



None of these shells is ever regularly collected for food pur- 

 poses, but on the Ramnad coast and the adjacent islands, the 

 poorer shore people when gathering other shells take any they find 

 and cook them with the rest. 



The shells of the mottled Wing-shell (Strombus canariiim) have 

 some value independent of food purposes ; large numbers are used 

 annually at Kilakarai by shell-ring makers in their trade. These 

 men who are all Muhammadans, pursue the most primitive methods, 

 such as we can understand prehistoric men employing. The two 

 ends of the shell are first broken down by means of a hammer 

 5 



