14 Beautiful Shells, 



grocers^ and tlie like ; and in tlie country tlie dairy- 

 maidj with tlie larger kinds of tlie same shelly skims 

 her milk, and slices her butter ; while sometimes by 

 the poor people of both towns and villages, the 

 deeper specimens are converted into oil-lamps. One 

 very important use, my young readers will under- 

 stand, when I speak of a ragged urchin, who 

 shouts to every passer-by — ^' Please remember the 

 grotto V 



In ancient times, we are told, the people of 

 Athens recorded their votes on public occasions, by 

 marks upon a shell, thus Pope says— 



" He -whom ungrateful Athens would expel, 

 At all times just, but wlien he signed the shell ;'* 



in allusion to this custom, of which we are re- 

 minded by such English words as Attestatioiij a 

 certifying, a bearing witness; Testify j to give 

 evidence; Testament, a^ Y?il\j or written disposal of 

 property, etc. ; all having their origin, it appears, in 

 the Latin testa — a shell. In ancient poetry, we find 

 the word Testucio used to signify a musical instru- 

 ment, also called a lyre or lute ; which instrument, 

 according to tradition, was first made by passing 

 strings, and straining them tightly, over the shell 

 of a tortoise. So the poet Dryden, describing 



