PERIWINKLE 377 



BuckiC; buckie-prins ; Coven, covin, cowrie, croglin, cuin, 

 cuvvin; Dead-man' s-eye, dog; European cowrie; Fiese wilk, 

 frese ; Gooyan, gowrie, great or waved whelk, groglin, grotie ; 

 John o' Groat's buckie ; Kewin, kinkling (Dorset) ; Loon ; Massy 

 whelk ; Pennywinkle ; Roaring buckie ; Sea-snail, siller-sawnies, 

 silver-willie, striated whelk; Tutson; Water stoups, whelk, white 

 buckie, wilk, wink. 



Prop winkle, also pinewinclan, from Latin pinna, a mussel. The 

 real etymology of " periwinkle " is " cannibal " borer, as it bores 

 or files its way through the shell of a neighbour, though it is 

 retaliated upon by the hermit-crab which, failing to find a suitable 

 empty shell, often eats out the inhabitant. The kind of periwinkle 

 called " siller-sawnie or " silver-willie " is supposed to be the shell 

 most preferred by the hermit-crab, at least it is often found in such. 

 A large kind, with a hole bored in the small end, makes a fairly 

 good trumpet, like the conch. 



Ossian — Fingal, 6-90 — speaks or sings of "traigh na faoch," the 

 shore of the periwinkles or buckles, but the learned translator of 

 Ossian's poems, the late Rev. Dr Clerk, said it should read 

 "traigh nam faobh," the shore of spoils. The yellow or large 

 white periwinkle furnishes a purple dye, now superseded by 

 cochineal; the fish, however, is uneatable, from its bitterness — 

 experto crede. The broth or soup made from periwinkles, both 

 black and white, Martin says, is good for nursing mothers. Such 

 soup when made is called '^sliabh"; also, when broken up, 

 pounded small and boiled, the broth or soup, when strained and 

 drank, is said to be a good cure for gravel and stone. The porous 

 honeycomb-substance so often found on our seashores is merely 

 the tough shell or cells in which the young buckies are born. This 

 honeycomb is called, in Galloway and Shetland at any rate, 

 though possibly elsewhere, the mermaids' or trowies' gloves or 

 purse ; each capsule of this contained four or five fish (^spondia 

 palmala). Another name is " bogie or bogie-man's gloves." The 

 above " sliabh " is a favourite drink in the Hebrides. From 

 living in close proximity to the shore, it is said the clean-blooded 

 Clan MacKinnon have been spoken, sung, and written of as 

 " Buidheann nam Faochag," the buckie people, and the natives of 

 the parish of Strath, Skye, the MacKinnons' country, where wilks 

 are plentiful, are called "na Faochagan," the Buckies. The above 

 epithet referring to the MacKinnons is to be found in "Blar 

 sliabh an t-Siorraim," by Sile na Ceapaich, viz. : — 



" Clann Fhiongain, bu luath ar ruaig Clan Fiongan so swift in your 



le gealtachd ; cowardly rout, 



Theich buidheann nam Faochag The race of the buckies fled home, 



gun aodach dhachaidh." garments without. 



There is, as is well known, a plant also called periwinkle, which 



