196 Appendix. 



Phoenician goddess [Astoreth?], found by Mr. Moore in 

 Syria. In Calmet's " Dictionary of the Holy Bible " 

 (1841, vol. 4, p. 37 ; vol. 5, pi. liv., fig. 5), there is a figure 

 of a Phcenician medal on which a female deity — half- 

 human, half-fish — holds a concha marina, or sea-shell,- in 

 her left hand. It is impossible t(3 identify the shells in 

 these cases, but whether Buccinum or Murex, purple-shell 

 or shell-trumpet, matters little. The chief point of interest 

 is the association of a conch-shell with the deity — in one 

 case a fish deity — recalling the like association of the 

 chank with the Hindu god, Vishnu. 



It is not a little curious to find that one of the purple- 

 yielding shells {Purpura lapillus) is commonly known as 

 the " dog-whelk." According to Lovell (" Edible British 

 Mollusca," 1884), and other authorities, Buccinum unda- 

 tum, L. is the common whelk, or buckie, the Ran and 

 Buccinonde of the French. " In Anglo-Saxon whelk is 

 JVeo/c, but 2V£o/c is said to mean i/tai whicli gives the 

 purple dye (therefore it would apply better to the dog- 

 whelk-, Buccinum lapillus, or Purpura lapillus, which yields 

 a purple dye) ; thus, embroidered loitli purple is weolc- 

 basn-hezven ; scarlet dye is zveolc-read" (Lovell, op. cit., 

 p. 200). 



The following survival of an ancient method adopted 

 in shell-fishing is worthy of note. At the present time 

 whelks are taken in great numbers in wicker baskets 

 baited with offal. Pliny (" Nat. Hist." bk. ix.) and Pollux 

 (" Onomasticon," bk. i., ch. iv.) describe the taking of 

 " purple fish " by a similar method, viz., in a kind of osier 

 kipe, called Nassis, baited with cockles. 



In dealing with the use of Triton shells for horns or 

 trumpets in the Mediterranean region no mention was 

 made of the practice of this custom nor of the presence of 

 these shells in Ancient Egypt. I now find that the Triton 

 was regarded by the Early Egyptians as an object worthy 

 of a place among the articles deposited with their dead. 

 J. de Morgan, in his " Recherches sur les origines de 

 I'Egypte,"^ records the discovery of two TV/Zwi-shells 

 from the Red Sea (probably T. tritonis') in the Royal 

 Tomb at Nagada, probably of proto-dynastic date.^ It 



?; Pt. II., Ethnographic prehistorique et tombeau royal de Negadah, 

 Paris, 1897, p. 160. 



= Ftde Dr. G. Elliot Smith. 



