52 CONCHOLOGIST’S COMPANION. 
Another species, the rare and beautiful M. hirundo, 
or Swallow-Muscle, which inhabits the Asiatic, West 
Indian, and Mediterranean seas, evinces the greatest 
variety in thickness, form, and hue. One of the 
most elegant of its varieties is green, with white rays; 
a second is of a dusty citron colour, rayed with 
brown; a third is white, beautifully dotted with 
green. 
The Mytilus demissus, or Silvery-Muscle, a favour- 
ite decoration among the Indians of North America, 
also deserves a brief description. It is called the 
White-Conch, and principally constitutes the breast- 
plate of their high priest. This breast-plate is worn 
on the great annual festivals of the natives, when, 
clothed in a white raiment of finely dressed doe-skin 
which resembles the ephod of the Jews, this great 
beloved man, as he is termed by his brethren, enters 
the holiest division in their place of worship, and 
offers the sacred fire, as a yearly atonement for the 
sins of his people. 
Specimens of the Cassis cornutus, or Great Conch- 
shell, has been found in ancient Indian tumuli, in the 
neighbourhood of Cincinnati. They were, most 
probably, drinking cups, or sacred utensils, and were 
used by the aborigines in connexion with the rites 
of sacrifice, or in making libations. These interest- 
ing specimens become of some importance as regards 
