64 



ECONOMICAL USE OF SHELLS. 



when Ossian sang, the flat valves of the scallop (Pecten max- 

 imus or opercularis) were the plates, and the hollow ones 

 the drinking-cups, of Fingal and his heroes ; hence the term 

 shell became ex^jressive of the greatest hospitality.* " Thou, 

 too, hast often accompanied my voice in Branno's hall of 

 shells." " The joy of the shell went round, and the aged 

 hero gave the fair ; " and there are many passages of a simi- 

 lar import in the poems of the Celtic bard ; nor, perhaps, 

 is the custom to which they allude yet wholly extinct. "We 

 were entertained in the island of Col," says Boswell, in his 

 tour to the Hebrides with Joluison, " with a primitive hearti- 

 ness. Whiskey was carried round in a shell, according to the 

 ancient Highland custom. Dr. Johnson would not partake 

 of it ; but, being desirous to do honour to the modes ' of other 

 times,' drank some water out of the shell." It is now 

 applied to less honourable and more useful purposes. The 



Fiff. 9. 



modern maiden of the Western Isles skims her milk with 

 it, or forms it into a spoon for lifting butter, and none can 

 be more elegant and better suited to the purpose. In Zet- 

 land the Fusus antiquus (Fig. 9), suspended horizontally by 

 a cord, is used as a lamp, the canal serving to hold the wick, 

 and the cavity to contain the oil. Examine the sketch, and 

 then tell me if it is not probable that some of the most ele- 



* " Shells were the only drinking-vessels of the Britons, and are even 

 used by the Highlanders at present." — Whituker''s Manchester, ii. 19. 



