27G VENUS MERCENARIA. 



saw a quantity of gray mullet (which the Italians call cefoli}. 

 They are enclosed iu a reed fence, and the spearing of these 

 poor imprisoned fish is a regal sport. Wild boars, too, for 

 the king's hunting, she saw in a copse of juniper and alater- 

 nus adjoining; and so tame are the creatures, that they ran up 

 to the men, who held out a sieve of corn to feed them, as 

 quietly as if they had been common pigs. But here, Hen- 

 . rietta, is the scallop-shell of the pilgrims (Pecten maximus)^ 

 or, as it is called in Spain and Portugal, the shell of St. 

 James, because that apostle is always represented with a 

 scallop-shell in his hat, and the pilgrims to the shrine of St. 

 James of Compostella, in Galicia, wear these scallops upon 

 their cloak and hat. But the scallop has always been the 

 pilgrims' ensign in their pilgrimages to holy places, and was 

 of such a distinguishing character that Pope Alexander IV, 

 by a bull, prohibited giving the use of them except to pil- 

 grims who were truly noble. They are of very frequent oc- 

 currence in heraldry. You recollect Parnell's Hermit: 



" He quits his cell; the pilgrim's staff he bore, 

 And fixed the scallop in his hat before." 



HENRIETTA. 



And what are these pretty shells'? 



ESTHER. 



This drawer contains the genus Venus, which, in calm 

 weather, may be seen sailing upon the surface of the water, 

 using one of their valves as a boat, and the other as a sail. 

 These shells are more numerous, and more varied in warm 

 climates; but there are two species which we find upon our 

 own shores; one of them (Venus mercenaries) is cut into cyl- 

 indrical beads, some white and some black, by the North 

 American Indians, of which they form their wampum, or 

 treaty belts,* which are the symbols of friendship with them. 

 They also use these shells for money, and the women cover 



* There is a detailed description of the wampum in the notes to 

 Gertrude of Wyoming. 



