20 Shells as evidoice of the Migrations. 



shell. Alany of the specimens of this species had a 

 portion of the bod}- whorl broken awaj- '^ as if for the 

 purpose of more convenient!}- extracting the aniinal. " 

 The same species is recorded from the Okadaira Shell 

 Mound at Hitachi by J. Jijima and C. Sasaki," who also 

 call attention to the fact of the specimens having almost 

 always an irregular opening in their bod}- whorl as if 

 made for facilitating the extraction of the animal. 



Why the shells of this particular species should be 

 broken and not the others is remarkable. The idea that 

 such a procedure was solely to facilitate the extraction of 

 the animal for food purposes does not appear to be con- 

 clusive. A far greater significance is attached to such an 

 loccurrence when one considers that Rapana bezoar belongs 

 to the purple-bearing famil}-, MitricidcCy and is closel}- 

 allied to Purpura. It is not improbable, therefore, that 

 the object in breaking the shells was to obtain purple for 

 dyeing purposes. That these ancient people were not 

 wholh' ignorant of textiles is evidenced by the occurrence 

 of spindle-whorls associated with the pottery and shell? 

 of the mounds. 



Ill the New World we have ample evidence of the 

 practice of this ancient industr}^ at several places in Cen- 

 tral America, especial!}- in the 17th and iSth centuries. 

 Here the species employed is Purpura patula, which is 

 plentiful in the West Indies, and on rocks between high 

 and low tide levels on both the Atlantic and Pacific 

 coasts of Central America. It resembles the Purpura 

 Ihciiiastouia of the Mediterranean, one of the species used 

 by the ancient Tyrian dyers, and which, as previously 

 mentioned, is still used by the Minorcan fishermen to 

 mark their linen.'''' 



■ ' Jhia., Appendi.x : No. 2542, 1SS2. 



- ■* See Lacaze-Diitliiers. " Xat. Hist, of Purple of Ancients,'" IVcc. Roy. 

 Si I. l.ondnit, \ . i860, p. 5S3. 



