Benefits. 255 
ably present to strangers when they form or recognise a treat 
of amity. The thin inner layers of some large flat shells, 
when polished, are used instead of glass for windows in the 
south of China and in India. Many of the domestic utensils 
of savage people are shells, and you must have observed that 
we have e frequently imitated these in our porcelain. In India 
they form drinking cups of the Naatilus Pompilius, which they 
render costly by painting devices on their outer surface ; and 
in other less civilised nations shells are converted into ae 
spoons, fishing-hooks, and even into razors. Their musical 
instruments also are often formed of large univalves, particu- 
larly of Triton variegatum Lamarck ; and though the music 
may be more loud than harmonious, it yet serves the pur- 
pose. 
“ The shell proclaims 
: : le 9 * 
Triumphs, and masques, and high heroic games. 
Even in our own country, in the days when Ossian sang, 
the flat shells of the scallop (Pécten maximus) were the 
plates, and the hollow ones the drinking cups, of Fingal and 
his heroes; and hence the term shell became expressive of the 
greatest hospitality. ** Thou, too, hast often accompanied my 
voice in Branno’s hall of shells.’ ** The yoy of the shell went 
round, and the aged hero gave the fair.” And there are many 
passages of a similar import in the poems of the Celtic bard. 
Now this shell is devoted to much less honourable purposes, the 
modern maiden of the Western Isles skims her milk with it, or 
forms it into a spoon for lifting butter, and none can be more 
elegant and better suited to the purpose. In Zetland the 
Fisus antiquus Lamarck (fig. 45.), suspended horizontally 
by a cord, is used as a lamp, the canal serving to hold 
the wick, nad the cavity to contain the oil. Examine the 
sketch, and then tell me if it is not probable that some of the 
most elegant patterns left us by the Greeks have been sug- 
gested by a similar primitive practice ? 
* Pietro Martire thus describes a custom of the native Americans : 
“ The doors of their houses and chambers were full of diverse kindes = 
shells, hanging loose by small cordes, that being shaken by the wind they 
make a certaine rattelling, and also a whistling noise, by gathering the wind 
in their holowe places; for herein they have great delight, and impute this 
for a goodly ornament.” Southey’s Madoc, vol. ii. p. 224. Hence Southey, 
in his description of the Festival of the Dead : — 
“ Not a sound is heard, 
But of the crackling brand, or mouldering fire, 
Or when, amid yon pendent string of shells, 
The slow wind makes a shrill and feeble sound, 
A sound of sorrow to the mind attuned 
By sights of woe.” 
