PECTINID^. SCALLOP. 107 



mention is made of a similar coffin (discovered in the 

 parish of Stepney, Middlesex, in the district known to 

 occupy the site of one of the cemeteries of Roman Lon- 

 don), the upper part ornamented with scallop shells ; 

 having at the head and foot two jars ; on the sides a 

 number of bottles of glistening red earth, some of 

 which were painted, and also some glass phials. The 

 chest, or coffin, contained the body of a woman. Leaden 

 coffins have been found at York, and in a Roman tomb 

 at Southfleet, Kent, and other places, as well as in 

 France; and Mr. C. Roach Smith says, "that they 

 may, most of them, possibly be assigned to the Roman- 

 British period." 



The scallop shell appears legitimately to have be- 

 longed to pilgrims to the shrine of St. James of Com- 

 postella, as may be gleaned from the following legend, 

 given by old Spanish writers : — 



"When the body of the saint was being miraculously 

 conveyed in a ship without sails, or oars, from Joppa 

 to Galicia, it passed the village of Bonzas, on the coast 

 of Portugal, on the day that a marriage had been cele- 

 brated there. The bridegroom with his friends were 

 amusing themselves on horseback on the sands, when 

 his horse became unmanageable, and plunged into the 

 sea ; whereupon the miraculous ship stopped in its voyage, 

 and presently the bridegroom emerged, horse and man, 

 close beside it. A conversation ensued between the 

 knight and the saint's disciples on board, in which 

 they apprised him, that it was the saint who saved him 

 from a watery grave, and explained the Christian religion 

 to him. He believed, and was baptized there and then, 

 and immediately the ship resumed its voyage, and the 

 knight came galloping back over the sea to rejoin his 



