CATALOGUE OF TEE MOLLUSCA OF SUSSEX. 181 



Toms's suggestion, and we must not overlook the fact that 

 H. nemoralis is eaten at the present day with much relish in 

 many Continental countries, and in some districts is even con- 

 sidered to have a more delicate flavour than either H. pomatia or 

 H. aspersa.* It is therefore only reasonable to suppose that this 

 Mollusc was eaten during hard times, if not regularly, by the 

 primitive occupants of the Sussex Downs. Mr. Toms does not 

 claim to have established his point, but there is much to support 

 it, and it merits careful investigation. Since writing the above, 

 the Eev. W. A. Shaw informs me that H. nemoralis was found in 

 British middens excavated on Stoke Clump in 1910. 



Folklore. 



There are two interesting observations by Mr. Weaver men- 

 tioned in Gordon's ' History of Harting ' that deserve quotation 

 here. On p. 319 he observes that H. ericetorum is "the common 

 Snail of our Downs, and is often put in requisition for decorative 

 purposes by our tender-aged rustic beauties, who mount a 

 number of the dead shells as necklaces and bracelets by stringing 

 them together." This appears to be a survival of a very ancient 

 practice, and one would much like to know if bored shells have 

 been found on prehistoric sites in Sussex. 



On p. 312 Weaver writes concerning Avion ater: — "By many 

 persons of easy belief, this Slug is thought to be endowed with 

 a valuable property, in which may be found a slight compensa- 

 tion for its depredations. In the destruction of warts on the 

 human skin, it has the credit locally of having been eminently 

 successful long before the application of acetic acid to this 

 purpose. The living Slug, after having been carefully rubbed 

 over the parts affected, is to be securely impaled on a thorn 

 in some secluded place and there left to die. If, from the 

 commencement of the experiment, the warts do not gradually 

 become fine by degrees and beautifully less, until they finally 

 disappear, the operator has failed in one or other of the two con- 

 ditions indispensable to success — implicit faith or strict secrecy ! " 



(To be continued.) 

 * Notes on H. aspersa in association with archaeological remains, and 

 on its use as food at the present time in parts of Wilts and Somerset under 

 the name of " wall-fish," may be seen in my papers on the Mollusca of 

 Wiltshire (' Journal of Conchology,' 1908) and the Mollusca of Somerset 

 (' Somersetshire Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Trans.,' 1911). 



