256 Natural History (jf Molluscous Animals 



A few shells have been applied to religious purposes. Re- 

 versed varieties of the Turbinellus pyrum Lamarck are held 

 sacred in China, 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.* Blu- 

 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, f In the dark ages, a scallop (Pecten maximus or 

 opercularis), fixed to the hat in front, was the emblem of the 

 pilgrim journeying to the Holy City f ; and to this custom 

 allusion is occasionally made by our poets and popular writers. 

 Thus the love-crazed Ophelia in her song : — 



" How should I your true love know 

 From another one ? 

 By his cockle-hat and staff i 

 And his sandal shoon." 



* Dillwyn's Descriptive Catalogue y p. 569. 



f Elements of Natural History^ p. 260. 



j " 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 Oriental customs than the 

 journeys of Christians to the Holy Land, and its history will probably be 

 found in the mythology of Eastern nations." — Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. 

 p. 538. 4to. 



