IV PRICES PAID FOR SHELLS 121 



may be seen crawling on the turf of a hedge-bank after a shower 

 of rain." They were " placed upon the tongue without any pre- 

 vious preparation, and swallowed alive." My informant himself 

 indulged in this practice for some time, '' not on account of any 

 gustatory pleasure it afforded, but from some vague notion that 

 it might do him good." 



A colleague of mine at King's College tells me that the 

 country people at Ponteland, near Morpeth, habitually collect 

 Limax agrestis and boil it in milk as a prophylactic against con- 

 sumption. He has himself frequently devoured them alive, but 

 they must be swallowed, not scrunched with the teeth, or they 

 taste somewhat bitter. 



Snails have occasionally fallen, with other noxious creatures, 

 under the ban of the Church. In a prayer of the holy martyr 

 Trypho of Lampsacus (about 10th cent, a.d.) there is a form of 

 exorcism given which may be used as occasion requires. It runs 

 as follows : " O ye Caterpillars, Worms, Beetles, Locusts, Grass- 

 hoppers, Woolly-Bears, Wireworms, Longlegs, Ants, Lice, Bugs, 

 Skippers, Cankerworms, Palmerworms, /Snails, Earwigs, and all 

 other creatures that cling to and wither the fruit of the grape 

 and all other herbs, I charge you by the many-eyed Cherubim, 

 and by the six-winged Seraphim, which fly round the throne, and 

 by the holy Angels and all the Powers, etc. etc., hurt not the 

 vines nor the land nor the fruit of the trees nor the vegetables 

 of the servant of the Lord, but depart into the wild moun- 

 tains, into the unfruitful woods, in which God hath given you 

 your daily food." 



Prices given for Shells. — Very high prices have occasionally 

 been given for individual specimens, particularly about thirty or 

 forty years ago, when the mania for collecting was at its height. 

 In those days certain families, such as the Volutidae, Conidae, 

 and Cypraeidae, were the especial objects of a collector's ardour, 

 and he spared no expense to make his set of the favourite genus 

 as complete as possible. Thus at Stevens' auction-rooms in 

 Covent Garden, on 21st July 1854, one specimen of Conus 

 cedo nulli fetched X9: 10s., and another X16, a C. omaicus 16 

 guineas, C. victor XIO, and C. gloria maris, the greatest prize of 

 all, <£43 : Is. At the Yernede sale, on 14th Dec. 1859 two 

 Conus omaicus fetched £15 and X22, and a C. gloria maris £34. 

 At the great Dennison sale, in April 1865, the Conidae fetched 



