198 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSCA. 



before going any expedition against their enemies, con- 

 sulted it. The medicine men seated themselves round 

 the sacred lodge, the lower part of which was thrown 

 up like a curtain, and the exterior mat was carefully 

 removed from the shell, that it might have air. Some 

 of the tobacco consecrated by having been long sus- 

 pended to the coverings of the shell, was taken by the 

 medicine men, and smoked to the " Great Medicine." 

 During the ceremony every one listened most atten- 

 tively, hoping to hear a sound proceed from the shell. 

 At length some one imagined he heard a noise resem- 

 bling a forced expiration of air from the lungs, and 

 this was considered a favourable omen, and the tribe 

 prepared for the expedition confident of success. If 

 on the contrary the shell obstinately remained silent, 

 the result of the expedition was regarded as doubtful.* 

 The natives of Usambara, in South Africa, according to 

 the late Mr. Keith Johnson, the leader of the East 

 African Expedition, in 1879, attach marvellous powers 

 to a large land shell, a species of Achatina, imagining 

 that it can ward off" all forms of evil and witchcraft, and 

 for this reason it was held in high repute, and they 

 place the dead shells in little enclosures of stone in 

 their fields, and at the gateways of their villages, which 

 are thus considered safe from the attacks of the enemy, 

 or from disease .f 



Dr. Troost, in an account of some ancient remains 

 discovered by him in Tennesee, mentions the finding 

 of a large conch shell (Cassis flammea), with the 



* Long, Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains,' 1823, 

 as quoted in * Flint Chips/ by Edward T. Stevens, pp. 448, 449. 



f Notes on the Geology of Asambara/ published in the ' Proceedings 

 of the Royal Geographical Society,' Sept. 



