Benefits. 255 



ably present to strangers when they form or recognise a treaty 

 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 frequently imitated these in our porcelain. In India 

 they form drinking cups of the Miutilus Pompilius, which they 

 render costly by painting devices on their outer surface ; and 

 in other less civilised nations shells are converted into knives, 

 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 

 Triumphs, and masques, and high heroic games." * 



Even in our own country, in the days when Ossian sang, 

 the flat shells of the scallop (Pecten 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 Br annoys hall of shells.^* " The joj/ 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 

 Fusus antiquus Lamarcic {Jig, 45.), suspended horizontally 

 by a cord, is used as a lamp, the canal serving to hold 

 the wick, and the cavity to contain the oil. Examine the 

 sketch, and then tell me if it is not probable that some of the 

 most elegant patterrfs 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 of 

 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 Madocy 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." 



S 4 



