ANIMAL PRODUCTS 151 



the patricians to use it for decorating the doors 

 and the columns of their apartments. The pre- 

 viously-quoted authority tells us that in order to 

 obtain the coveted product, the natives of Ceylon 

 resort to the cruel practice of suspending the live 

 turtles over a fire until their shells break asunder 

 from their bony supports ; but the present writer 

 believes he is correct in stating that this custom 

 is no longer indulged in, and that the method 

 employed in other countries, namely, that of killing 

 the animals and removing the tortoise-shell by the 

 agency of hot water, or by burying the carcases 

 under the hot sand and leaving them there for a 

 period of seven or eight days, is now universally 

 followed. 



Ivory has always been regarded with favour as 

 a material for decorative purposes, for converting 

 into knife handles, paper knives, billiard balls, 

 etc., and, as previously mentioned, forms also the 

 basis of the pigment known as ivory-black. The 

 best ivory is obtained from the tusks of elephants ; 

 but the walrus, the hippopotamus, and the narwhal 

 also yield a supply. Horn is yet another animal 

 product which is used in the manufacture of various 

 domestic articles. 



From the bee we obtain a nourishing food in 

 the form of honey, as well as a useful commodity 

 in the form of wax ; but the latter substance, 

 however, is also obtained from the wool of sheep 

 during the process of scouring. The larvae of the 

 silk -moths give us a supply of silk which they spin 

 into cocoons around their bodies before changing 



