196 FDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



that a chank, in which the whorls were reversed, and 

 ran from right to left, instead of from left to right, was 

 regarded with such reverence, that a specimen formerly 

 sold for its weight in gold, but that now one may be had 

 for £4 or £5. The Chinese also hold reversed chank- 

 shells in special veneration, and give high prices for 

 them. They are kept in the Pagodas by the priests 

 and used on special occasions, and the consecrated oil 

 is kept in one of these sinistrorsal Turbinellidce, with 

 which the Emperor is anointed at his coronation.* 

 From the earliest ages the Gulf of Manaar lias been 

 fished for chanks. Perforated conch shells, both a 

 Triton (T. variegatum ?), and a large conical Strombus, 

 perforated at the apex of the spire, not on the side of 

 one of the upper whorls, as in the case of the Triton, 

 are used by the natives of New Guinea, Humboldt 

 Bay, or u Talok Linrju." — They are highly prized by 

 them and make a booming noise, t 



A species of Triton was used formerly by the Indians 

 of South America as a trumpet, and a specimen was 

 dug up at Canete, in Peru. The shell was called 

 " Bosina," on account of the sound produced by blowing 

 into it resembling the roar of a bull, and it was used 

 to announce the approach of any great man into a town. 

 It was ornamented with tassels of human hair, and a 

 leather strap of exquisite workmanship. Mr. Walter 

 Shaw, of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, at 

 Callao, is said to have it in his possession. J 



Dr. Potter, in his ' Archaeologia Greeca/ vol. ii., 

 states that the ancient Greeks used shells as trumpets 



* Lubbock's ' Prebistoric Times,' vol. i. p. 222. 



t ' A Naturalist on the ' Challenger.' 



$ ' Two Years in Peru,' by Thomas Hutchinson,' vol. i. p. 134. 



