Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Lx. (191 5), No. \. 35 



When pearls first were sought after is not known : 

 but the intimate association of a special appreciation of 

 pearls with the use of purple and of the conch-shell 

 suggests that the persistent search for these other shells 

 may also have been responsible for the development of 

 the fashion for the pearl-shell. 



The Phoenicians no doubt acquired from the My- 

 cenean peoples their knowledge of the making of purple 

 and the custom of using the conch-shell trumpet. In 

 course of time, as the demand for these shell-fish increased 

 and the Mediterranean supply became inadequate, it is 

 probable that the Phoenicians began to search the Red 

 Sea for them : this may have been responsible for the 

 inauguration of the definite trade in pearls and pearl-shell, 

 which was destined to be the primary incentive which led 

 the Phoenicians further and further to the East, until 

 eventually they themselves, or some peculiarly apt pupils 

 of theirs, were led right across the Pacific to the pearl- 

 beds of the American Coast, the Antilles and the Mis- 

 sissipi. One of the factors in developing the special 

 appreciation of the pearl-shell may have been an outcome 

 of the use of the conch-shell in religious ceremonies in 

 Crete. For it is known that when the use of the conch- 

 trumpet was introduced into India, perhaps in the seventh 

 century B.C., such importance was attached to its associa- 

 tion with temple worship that special sanctity became 

 associated with the shell itself 8 A great variety of objects 

 were made from the " chank," to which particular religious 

 and magical value was attached ; and the cult of white 

 shells spread far and wide in the Far East, Oceania and 

 America. 



In India the geographical distribution of megalithic 



s James Hornell, " The Sacred Chank of India," Madras Fisheries 

 Bureau, Bulletin No. 7, Madras, 1914 — See especially Chapter III. 



