216 I. IJIMA : HEXACTINELLIDA. I. 



The comparative facility witli which specimens of E. oioeni 

 could be got b}^ purchase or otherwise in Fukuoka, Shimonoseki, 

 &c., is undoubtedly due in a great measure to the fact that they 

 are in some demand among the folks in those parts of the 

 country, on account of an old custom connected with- their mar- 

 riage ceremony. The custom consists in including a Euplectella 

 among the articles with which the room of the ceremony is 

 decorated, or which are taken by the bride to the bride-groom's 

 house. It is held to be a felicitous object betokening eternal 

 connubial love on account of the presence of the inmates in an 

 inseparable pair. In the long list of gifts, which the present 

 Emperor and the Empress of Japan received from their subjects 

 on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary, are men- 

 tioned several Euplectellie, gifts humble in themselves but full 

 of well-wishing sentiments. The Japanese name for Euplectella, 

 Kai-rö-dö-kets (written {§" ^ [P] /C), means, as was correctly point- 

 ed out long ago by Marshall ('75), something like ' Together 

 unto old age and unto the same grave.' Perhaps the name may 

 have seemed to the Japanese mind all the more appropriate, 

 since, by simply changing the first of the four ideographs into 

 one which means ' the sea ' (ï^) and yet without changing at all 

 the pronunciation of the entire combination, the name may be 

 made to signify * Lobsters in the same cell.' In fact the name 

 is often written in that way ; thus, %y^ H^ /C. 



