256 Natural History of Molluscous Animats : — 
45 
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A few shells have been applied to religious purposes. Re- 
versed varieties of the Turbinéllus pyrum Lamarck are held 
sacred in C hina, where great prices are given for them; and 
they are kept in pagodas by the priests, who on certain occa- 
sions administer medicines to the sick from them, and also 
use them to anoint the emperor at his coronation.*  Biu- 
menbach informs us that the same shell is made into arm and 
finger rings, and worn by the poorer Hindoos. After their 
death, these rings are thrown by their relations into some holy 
river, and never again taken up by any of the people ; hence, 
he adds, the great ‘consumption of such rings, and the import- 
ance of the fishery for the shells from which they are manu- 
factured. + In the dark ages, a scallop (Pécten maximus or 
opercularis), fixed to the hat in front, was the emblem of the 
pilgrim journeying to the Holy City +; and to this custom 
allusion is occasionally made by our poets and popular writers. 
Thus the loye-crazed Ophelia in her song : — 
* How should I your true love know 
From another one ? 
By his cockle-hat and staff, 
And his sandal shoon.” 
* Dillwyn’s Descriptive Catalogue, p. 569. 
+ Elements of Natural History, p. 260. 
{ “It is not easy to account for the origin of the shell, as a badge worn 
by pilgrims ; but it decidedly refers to much earlier Or nil customs than the 
journeys of Christians to the Holy Land, and its histor y will probably be 
found in the mythology of Eastern nations.” — Clarke’s Travels, vol. ii. 
p. 538. 4to. 
