110 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSC A. 



Mr. C. Roacli Smith says, "that they may, most of 

 them, possibly be assigned to the Roman-British 

 period." 



The scallop shell appears legitimately to have be- 

 longed to pilgrims to the Shrine of St. James of Com- 

 postella, as may be gleaned from the following legend 

 given by old Spanish writers : 



" The body of St. James, after he had been be- 

 headed by Herod Agrippa, was taken away by his dis- 

 ciples, carried to Joppa, and placed on board ship 

 (some say that this ship was of marble). The angels 

 miraculously conveyed the body oi: the saint, in the 

 ship without sails or oars, from Joppa to Galicia. It 

 passed the village of Bonzas, on the coast of Portugal, 

 on the day that a marriage had been celebrated there. 

 The bridegroom, with his friends, were amusing them- 

 selves on horseback on the sands, when his horse be- 

 came unmanageable, and plunged into the sea ; where- 

 upon the miraculous ship stopped in its voyage, and 

 presently the bridegroom emerged, horse and man, 

 close beside it. A conversation ensued between the 

 knight and the saint's disciples on board, in which 

 they apprised him that it was the saint who saved 

 him from a watery grave, and explained the Christian 

 religion to him. He believed, and was baptized thero 

 and then, and immediately the ship resumed its 

 voyage, and the knight came galloping back over the 

 sea to rejoin his astonished friends. He told them all 

 that had happened, and they, too, were converted, and 

 the knight baptized his bride with his own hand. 

 Now, when the knight emerged from the sea, both 

 his dress and the trappings of his horse were 

 covered with scallop shells ; and, therefore, the 



