Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry. 19 



England. The famous Wilfred ordered a copy of the 

 four Gospels- to be written for the church of Ripon, in 

 letters of the purest gold, upon leaves of parchment, 

 purpled in the ground, and variously coloured on the 

 surface. 



The Gregorian Bible, presented b)'- a monkish mis- 

 sionary and his companions to the first Christian church 

 erected at Canterbury, was also of a similar description. 



Eastward of the Mediterranean we find several indi- 

 cations and curious survivals of this ancient purple 

 industry. 



According to Johnston," the Chinese make use of a 

 similar dye. The extreme conservatism of Chinese tastes 

 suggests that the art is no recent importation amongst 

 them. Bancroft'" also gives an interesting quotation 

 regarding the use of shell-purple by the Chinese settlers 

 in the Malay region. He tells us that '' Mr. John Nicuhoff 

 relates that ' abundance of purple snails are found in the 

 islands over against Batavia. They are boiled and eaten 

 by the Chinese, who have a way of polishing the shells, 

 and prick out of the middle of the snail a certain purple- 

 coloured substance which they use in colouring and 

 making red ink.' " 



That the purple was appreciated and sought for by 

 the ancient inhabitants of Japan is implied from the 

 discovery of certain broken shells in their " Kitchen- 

 middens." Professor Edward S. Morse, in his paper on 

 "Shell Mounds of Omori,"'^ tells us that along with such 

 species as Fusus inconstans, Heniifusus tuba, Eburna 

 japonica, etc., the shells ol Rapanabezoar were exceedingly 

 abundant in the mounds and of large size with massive 



'* Johnston, op. cit., p. 74. 



'^ Bancroft, "Philosophy of Permanent Colours," i., 1794, pp. 93 — 4. 

 '" Memoirs of the Science Dept., Univ. of Tokio, Japan, vol. i., pt. i.. 

 No. 2539, 1879. 



