HORNELL— THE INDIAN CONCH 47 



easy of assimilation in the body and therefore more efficacious. The rehgious associa- 

 tions surrounding the chank have also their value in inspiring the confidence of patients 

 in the value of this medicine, faith that may help largely towards a cure. 



The wearing of chank rings, the rubbing of the affected parts with them and the 

 laving of them with water which has been in contact with these rings, are forms of 

 treatment on a different footing. They are to be considered purely as charms, without 

 direct therapeutic value. They bear the same relation to the internal employment 

 of powdered shell as does the quack exploitation of electricity by means of belts and 

 bands containing discs of metal to the legitimate use of current electricity in the hands 

 of qualified medical practitioners. If the former have any value it is by reason of 

 faith alone. 



The egg-capsule of the chank is employed by the chank and pearl divers of Tuticorin 

 to relieve headache. They grind up a portion of the egg-capsule (sanku-pu or " chank- 

 flower ") in gingelly-oil, together with pepper and coriander seed, and apply the paste 

 to the forehead and temples. 



Finally, according to Risley (II, p. 223) the shell- workers of Dacca are accustomed 

 to extract the dried remnant of the visceral coil (called pitta) from the shells they receive 

 and to sell this to native physicians as a medicine for spleen enlargement. He also 

 states that the dust produced in sawing the shells is employed to prevent the pitting 

 of small-pox and as an ingredient of a valuable white paint. 



(n) FOOD. 



During the run home from the chank beds, the divers are accustomed to extract 

 the foot and anterior part of the body of the chank from the shells they have collected. 

 The work is roughly performed by means of a pointed iron rod and all the apical mass, 

 comprising the hepatic and reproductive glands, remains within the shell. What is 

 extracted consists almost entirely of tough muscular tissue carrying the adherent horny 

 operculum at one end. These fragments are collected in the Httle palmyra-leaf baskets 

 used for bailing water out of the canoe. The flesh, called chanku-chathai, is carried 

 home and there prepared for family use. The preparation consists of separating the 

 operculum, boiling the flesh for a short time and then cutting the foot and head region 

 transversely into thin slices. These are dried in the sun ; when required for use they 

 are fried in oil and eaten with rice and curry stuffs. On one occasion I essayed to try 

 this much-esteemed food, but my taste was not sufficiently cultivated ; the fried slices 

 tasted or rather smelled like frizzled shoe-leather and were altogether too tough for 

 my teeth. 



(o) INCENSE STICKS. 



The horny operculum is also put to use. It is dried, reduced to powder, and then 

 employed, after soaking in water, as an adhesive matrix to bind together the powdered 



