32 S/iel/s as evidence of the Migraiious. 



been both seen and heard in a certain cavern, blowing a 

 conch-shell, and of the form under which they are usually- 

 represented. ' And one of the Scholiasts on Homer says, 

 that before the discover}- of the brazen trumpet b\' the 

 Tyrrhenians, the conch-shell was in general use for that 

 purpose." 



The larger species of Bnecijiuvi is still used by 

 Italian herdsmen in directing their cattle. It is also 

 common in North Wales, Stafford.shire, Lithuania, and 

 Muscovy, where the}- are also applied to pastoral pur- 

 poses.^ At Casamicciola, in the Island of Ischia, conch 

 shell trumpets are sounded to scare awa\- thieves and 

 birds from the vineyards and gardens."* Sicilian fishermen 

 use Triton iiodiferits as a trumpet, and Vcrany tells us 

 that at Nice this shell, with a hole at the top, serves as a 

 trumpet for the fishermen and countr}- people, and that 

 the braying noise produced by it renders this unmusical 

 instrument indispensible for the old-fashioned charivari, 

 which he describes as a deafening serenade to signalize 

 the marriages of widows and ill-assorted couples." A. 

 Mosso relates that the Triton is still sounded in church 

 at Piedmont, and that during the services in Holy Week 

 at Chieri, when the choir was singing the psalms, and a 

 table was struck with sticks during the so-called tenebra- 

 of the sepulchre, the sacristan gave him a Triton shell to 

 sound.'" Issel also relates that during the services of 



"' Plinv, "Nat. Hist.." ix., ch. 4. {I5oIin's Ed., vol. ii.. p. 362). 



'■• Ibid, (footnote by Hostock & Riley). 



• Roberts, op. cil., \>. 97. and Lovell. " Edible liiil. Moll," lS<S4, p. 

 194. 



■> l.ovell, op. (.ii., p. 194, quoting Dr. Wni. Russell, '" Memories of 

 Ischia." Nineteenth dntury, Sept., 1883. 



■•' Jeffreys, (5;^. (it., iv., 1867, p. 303. 



'" Mosso, "The Dawn of Mediterranean Civili/alion," KMO, p. 365. 



