HELICID.E. — SNAIL. 239 



The ancients seem to have studied the habits of these 

 mollusks, as besides Theophrastus, whom I have already 

 quoted, Aristotle also mentions them; and Teucer 

 speaks of the snail as " an animal destitute of feet and 

 spine and bone, whose back is clad with horny shell, 

 with long projecting and retreating eyes/'* and many 

 others. Hesiod calls the snail the " hero that carries 

 his house on his back," and Anaxilas says — 



"You are e'en more distrustful than a snail, 

 Who fears to leave even his house hehind him."f 



Somewhat different is the old English proverbial 

 rhyme, 



" Good wives to snails should be akin, 

 Always to keep their homes within ; 

 Yet unlike snails they should not pack 

 All they are worth upon their back." 



Gwillim, in his ' Heraldry/ informs us that the snail 

 is called Tardigrada domiporta, the "slow-going house- 

 bearer," and adds, " the bearing of the snail doth 

 signify that much deliberation must be used in matters 

 of great difficulty and importance; for although the 

 snail goeth most slowly, yet, in time she ascendeth to 

 the top of the highest tower, as Mr. Carew, of Antony, 

 hath wittily moralized in his poem, intituled ' The 

 Herring's Tail/ " He gives snails as the armorial 

 bearings of the Shelleys, but he also mentions whelks, 

 which shells are now borne by this family. 



The crest of the Carpenters of Somersetshire is a 



nail passant proper, shell argent ; and that of the 



Galay family, a snail, horns erect, proper. In F. 



Osborn's ' Miscellany/ 1659, it is said that mushrooms, 



* Atheweus, ' Deipu.' bk. x. chap. 83, p. 720. 

 f Ibid, book ii. chap. 63, p. IDA. 



