POPULAR CUSTOMS. 79 



meanders of the slime-tracked creature they decypher — may 

 neither eye nor fate deceive them ! — the initial of the one- 

 loved name ! 



" Last May-day fair I search'd to find a snail, 

 That might my secret lover's name reveal. 

 Upon a gooseberry bush a snail I found, 

 For always snails near sweetest fruit abound. 

 I seized the vermin, home I quickly sped, 

 And on the hearth the milk-white embers spread. 

 Slow crawl'd the snail ; and, if I right can spell, 

 In the soft ashes mark'd a curious L. 

 Oh ! may this wondrous omen lucky prove ! 

 For L is found in Lubberkin and Love." Gay. 



And, in my younger days, I remember the country school- 

 boy, while strolling, with satchel on his back, from his hamlet 

 to the neighbouring village, would stay to solicit, by doggerel 

 rhymes, the black slug (Arion ater) to protrude its horns ; 

 and, having seized them according to the prescribed rules, 

 would go on his way with a gayer heart and elevated hopes. 

 Ay, and I have envied the better fortune of my fellow, who 

 could tell, by the sounding of his whelk, of storms at sea, 

 and of the fluxes of the tide ! For, with Wordsworth, I 

 have oftimes seen 



" A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract 

 Of inland ground, applying to his ear 

 The convolutions of a smooth-lipp'd shell ; 

 To which, in silence hush'd, his very soul 

 Listen'd intensely, and his countenance soon 

 Brighten'd with joy ; for murmurings from within 

 Were heard, — sonorous cadences whereby, 

 To his belief, the monitor express'd 

 Mysterious union with its native sea." 



How beautifully has Landor described the same phenomenon 

 and custom, when of the sinuous shells he sings 



" Of pearly hue 



Within, and they that lustre have imbibed 



In the sun's palace porch — where, when unyoked, 



His chariot wheel stands midway in the wave. — 



Shake one, and it awakens — then apply 



Its polished lips to your attentive ear, 



And it remembers its august abodes, 



And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there." 



Nay ! say not that I trifle, but rather condescend to my 

 humour ; for truly these are notices in which I more consult 

 my own eccentricity of taste than the approval of your sober 

 criticism ; but in all my studies in natural history, I have 



