MURICID.E. — WHELK. 127 



disease-makers, or sorcerers, to entreat them to stop 

 plaguing their victims. " These disease-makers col- 

 lected any nahak, or rubbish, that had belonged to any 

 one, such as the skin of a banana he had eaten, wrapped 

 it in a leaf like a cigar, and burnt it slowly at one end. 

 As it burnt, the owner's illness increased ; and if it was 

 burnt to the end, he died : therefore, as soon as a man 

 fell ill, feeling sure that some sorcerer was burning his 

 rubbish, shell trumpets, which can be heard for miles, 

 are blown as a signal to the sorcerers to stop, and wait 

 for the presents which should be sent in the morning. 

 When a disease-maker fell ill himself, he too believed 

 that some one was burning his rubbish, and had his 

 shells blown for mercy.""* 



The large chank-shell, TurbinelJa rapa, is a chief in* 

 strument of the Buddhists, who blow three times a day 

 on this sacred shell, to summon believers to worship ; and 

 the same authority states that, according to the most 

 ancient annals of the Cingalese, the chank-shell is 

 sounded in one of the superior heavens of the demi- 

 gods (similar to the conch-blowing tritons of Grecian 

 mythology) in honour of Buddha, as often as the latter 

 wanders abroad on the earth. f Sir J. E. Tennent men- 

 tions that this chank-shell is exported from Ceylon to 

 India as a wind instrument, and also to be sawn into 

 rings for anklets and bracelets ; and also that a chank 

 in which the whorls w 7 ere reversed, and ran from right 

 to left, instead of from left to right, was regarded witli 

 such reverence, that a specimen formerly sold for its 

 weight in gold, but that now, one may be had for £4 or 



* Turner, 'Polynesia,' as quoted in Taylor's History of Mankind, 

 p. 128. 



f ' Yoyage of the Xovara,' vol. i. p. 388. 



