98 THE HALL OF SHELLS. 
of shattered homes of the Mu urex trunculus or 
Tyrian rock shell. 
“The centuries have preserved a pretty 

the colormg of purple. It has an idyllic charm, 
and brings the people of that old city, whose 
crest was a Purpura shell, near enough to be 
our kin. <A pretty Tyrian maiden, so runs the 
tale, was tripping along the sea sands ; her pet 
was a dog that sported at her side; in his play 
he took a shell in his mouth and crushed it; 
soon the dog’s white hair was dashed with the 
richest purple. The pretty maiden had a lover 
whom no undertaking daunted ; she showed to 
him the beautiful color upon the hair of her 
pet, and begged that she might have a robe of 
the same rich hue. Not many days thereafter 
the hero-lover brought the pretty maiden the 
first robe of royal purple ever worn. 
“Other members of this family have also 
furnished the purple dye. At one place in 
southern Greece there is a little ‘mountain of 
shells’ of the Murex brandaris, crushed for 
their purple. Several of the Purpuras were 
similarly used. Both dlurices and Purpuras 
feed upon mollusks, boring through their shells 
with their hard-toothed proboscis. They are a 
numerous family, and at home in all seas, 
