ROUND THE INDIAN -MUSEUM. Ill 



OTHER FAMILIAR MOLLUSCA. 



"I shall next call your attention to some very interesting 

 objects, the conch and the cowries, which must be quite 

 familiar to every one of you. Yet I doubt whether 

 you ever troubled yourselves to enquire about their 

 history. My friend Vidyabhushan is candid enough 

 to confess that he has never done so, although a conch 

 has formed a part of the paraphernalia of his daily 

 worship for the last forty-five years. Let me, however, 

 tell you something about these molluscans. 



"The conch (sankha) are marine shells, which vary in 

 shape and size according as they belong to one family 

 or another. The animals inhabiting the shells are all 

 carnivorous, and some, you will be surprised to hear, 

 are even carrion feeders. The common shank shells 

 (Turbinella pyrum) are abundant on the coasts of 

 India, Ceylon, Siam, and China. " Pap boat " is the 

 name of another kind of shell common on the coast 

 of India and Ceylon. Writing about this shell, Sir 

 Emerson Tennent, a former Governor of Ceylon and a 

 great Naturalist, says that, it is used by the Hindus of 

 the Malabar Coast to keep sacred oil which is employed 

 in anointing their priests. 



" The "Spinde shell," called "Buckie" in Scotland, 

 is extensively used as an article of food by the poorer 

 classes of people there. By the by, have you ever 

 heard of the "Roaring Buckie," in which the sound of 

 the sea may always be heard? Who is whispering 



