50 
EDIBLE BRITISH MOLLUSKS. 
take mussels and other shellfish from the shore, it is 
equally important for the lord of the manor to do his 
utmost to prevent these natural friends of his embank- 
ments and jetties from being removed in large quanti- 
ties from his part of the shore. 
Neumann tells us that calcined mussel- shells make 
strong lime, and bind quickly, and that shell-lime is 
generally considered stronger than stone-lime. Mussel- 
shells, when polished, make pretty pincushions and 
needlebooks, and at the colourists, they are filled with 
gold, silver, and bronze, and sold for heraldic painting 
and illuminating. It was in one of these shells, also, 
in which the witch, in the quaint old story, put to sea 
for the purpose of wrecking her enemy’s ships. 
A large species of mussel, called awabi or awahee, is 
used in Japan as a new year’s gift. The day is spent in 
paying respects, visiting, and giving presents to friends 
and relatives, and they mostly consist of awabi. Awabi, 
in days of yore, were the first sustenance and support of 
the Japanese, as acorns were formerly the primitive diet 
of the inhabitants of Europe, and the awabi is the em- 
blem, or rather the memorial, of the frugality of their 
forefathers.'^ 
There is another purpose for which these shells are 
used, which would astonish the Truefitts ” of the pre- 
sent day j for Grey, in his ^ Australia,’ mentions that 
amongst the contents of a native woman’s bag was a 
mussel- shell for cutting the hair. 
There is an interesting account in Captain O’Brien’s 
^Adventures during the late War,’ of the method of 
fishing for mussels in the Bay of Concepcion. A man 
and woman in a canoe push off from the shore, to a certain 
* ‘ Religious Ceremonies,’ vol. iv. p. 315. 
