HORNELL— THE INDIAN CONCH 21 



gold and this statement is probably correct. To-day tbey are less valuable and small 

 and imperfect ones occasionally change hands in the north of Ceylon at Es. 60 to Rs. 

 90 each (say £4 to £6) ; such shells are usually sub-fossil ones found buried in deep mud. 

 Large good-conditioned sinistral shells obtained alive, and therefore of good colour, still 

 command high rates — anything from Rs. 400 to Rs. 5,000 or more — so infrequently 

 are they found. 



The method of estimating the approximate value of these latter shells is as follows — 

 if the shell be of 100 rupees' weight or over (one standard coin weighs exactly one tola ; 

 2-| tolas = one ounce) the value is calculated at the rate of Rs. 50 per tola or rupee's 

 weight ; thus a shell of 110 rupees' weight would be estimated accordingly to this method 

 at Rs. 5,500. When the weight is between 30 and 100 tolas then the rate per tola may 

 be taken at Rs. 30/- to Rs. 40/- according to size and quality ; a 50 tola weight shell 

 would be worth from Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 2,000. If of 25 tolas' weight the rate may vary from 

 Rs. 5/- to Rs. 20/- per tola. 



Wealthy Hindu Rajahs and Zamindars also aspire to possess these sacrosanct shells, 

 the orthodox in order that they may use them to perform abeyshekam ' in their family 

 shrine and others for the ostentatious pride of possession and because of the superstition 

 generally current which accounts the ownership of a Valampuri chank as conferring 

 prosperity upon the household owning it. 



I know also a wealthy Muhammadan Marakkayar who has refused offers of several 

 hundreds of rupees for one of these shells ; to him the shell is a mascot, the bringer of 

 good luck. 



The result of my inquiries indicates that there exist at present in India not less 

 than 120 sinistral chank shells. I know the actual whereabouts of 60 and I am well 

 satisfied that it is improbable that I have overestimated the remainder at an equal 

 number. 



The chank shell is so massive and strong as to be practically indestructible under 

 ordinary circumstances. I have found chank artifacts in the ruins of Korkai, the Kolkhoi 

 of the old Greek and Egyptian geographers, which though over 1,000 years old are in- 

 distinguishable except in colour from fragments cut in Dacca workshops to-day. Hence 

 the sinistral shells now found in Hindu temples should represent the aggregate catch 

 of this abnormality for several hundreds of years. If we place the period at the conser- 

 vative limit of 300 years we shall find the percentage borne by sinistral to normal 

 dextral shells an extremely small one. Elsewhere (Madras Fisheries Bulletin, No. 7) 

 I have shown that the average catch of chank shells off the Indian and Ceylon coasts 

 aggregates 2,500,000 per annum. There is reason to believe that a hundred years ago 

 the average was considerably higher but some allowance must be made for interruptions 

 in the fishery due to political unrest in the troublous times prior to the coming of the 

 Pax Britannica. 2\ milUons of shells are therefore probably a fairly accurate approxi- 



1 The worship of the gods with libations. 



