30 EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 



" Cockle " was the common name in olden times for 

 the escallop of pilgrims^ — " he wore the cockle in his 

 hat/' etc. ; and it is still often so used in heraldic lan- 

 guage. Lydgate, when he says — 



" And as the cocidlle, with heavenly dewe 

 So clene 

 Of kynde, engendreth white perKs rounde.'' 



means evidently the oyster, alluding to the old fable of 

 pearls being formed by the oyster's rising to the surface 

 at the full moon, and opening its shell to receive the 

 falling dew-drops, which thus hardened into pearls, — 

 an idea which is quaintly detailed by Robinson, in his 

 'Essay towards a Natural History of Westmoreland 

 and Cumberland' (1709), who, in speaking of the pearls 

 procured from the rivers Irt and End, says, " Those 

 large shellfish which we call horse-mussels, which, gap- 

 ing eagerly and sucking in their dewy streams, conceive 

 and bring forth great plenty of them" (the pearls), 

 " which the neighbourhood gather up at low-water, and 

 sell at all prices." The natives of India have a simi- 

 lar belief with regard to the origin of pearls, viz. that 

 they are congealed dewdrops, which Buddha in certain 

 months showers upon the earth, when they are caught 

 by the oysters whilst floating on the waters to 

 breathe.* 



The natives of Java have a still stranger belief that 

 the pearls themselves breed and increase if placed in 

 cotton, and they actually sell what they term " breed- 

 ing pearls" for this purpose, affecting to distinguish the 

 male from the female. Those pearls which are clus- 

 tered together, in the form of a blackberry, are said 

 by them to be thus produced. Nor is this belief pecu- 



* 'Household Words,' toI. iii. p. 80, " My Pearl-fishing Expedition." 



