42 MOLLUSCA-THEIR USE TO SAVAGE NATIONS. It is the same with many savage nations. They either habitually live on mollusca, which afford them their main supply, or they resort to them when the fruit season has past, or when the trees have failed in their usual productiveness. Thus from the particulars scattered through the relations of Cook, Freycinet, and Beechy, the conclusion is forced upon us that the natives of Australia derive their principal subsistence from this source. Wherever marks of fire were observed there the shells of oysters, cockles, mussels, and various other bivalves, robbed of their contents, were strewed around, and sometimes in numbers scarcely credible. They apparently eat none of them in a raw state, nor do they always go on shore to dress them, for they have frequently fires in their canoes for that purpose. "In California," says Captain Beechy, "mussels are found in considerable quantities upon the shores, and form a large portion of the food of the Indians bordering upon the coasts and rivers. At Monterey two species of Haliotis of large size are also extremely abundant, and equally sought after by the Indians. They are found on the granite rocks forming the south-east part of the bay, which appears to be their northern limit. The natives make use of these shells for ornaments, and decorate their baskets with pieces of them." To the people of Terra del Fuego shell-fish are every thing. Captain Cook saw no appearance of their having any other food; "for, though seals were frequently seen near the shore, they seemed to have no implements for taking them. The shell-fish are collected by the women, whose business it seems to be to attend, at low water, with a basket in one hand, a stick pointed and barbed in the other, and a satchel The is no fairer and more profitable sands for cokills in all the world.' cokills still preserve their good character, and, unlike many good things, appear to have conducted themselves peaceably, according to the laws which regulate the increase of a thriving population." "It is not easy to calculate," says Mr. Wilson, "the amount of such beds of shell-fish, but we may mention that, during a period of great distress which prevailed a good many years ago, all the families in the island (then about two hundred in number) resorted, for the sake of this food, to the great sands at the northern end of Barra. It was computed that, for a couple of summers at the time alluded to, no less than from one hundred to two hundred horse-loads were taken at low water every day of the spring-tides during the months of May, June, July, and August. We were pleased to hear it observed that the shell-fish are always most abundant in years of scarcity."-Voy. round the Coasts of Scotland, i. 460.-In North Uist, cockles of equal size and most delicate flavour are found abundantly, and afford an unfailing source of food to the people.-Ibid. i. 445. Voy. to the Pacific, &c., ii. 83. See also p. 74, and vol. i. 33: and Home's Lect. on Comp. Anat. v. 358. Haliotis tuberculata is commonly eaten in Guernsey and Jersey. at their backs: they loosen the limpets and other fish that adhere to the rocks with the stick, and put them into the basket, which, when full, they empty into the satchel." * The Japanese even, though a civilized nation, appear to make such a considerable use of shell-fish that they may be reckoned among their necessaries. "All sorts of oysters, mussels, and shells, of which there is a great plenty and surprising variety in the Japanese seas, are eat, none excepted, raw, pickled, salted, boiled, or fried. They are daily gathered on the coasts in low water. Divers dive for them to a considerable depth. Others fish them with nets." One the most esteemed is the Haliotis or Awabi, probably the same as those mentioned by Beechy, of which Kampfer gives the following account:-" They lie deep under water, sticking fast to rocks, or to the bottom of the sea, from whence they are taken up by fishermen's wives, they being the best divers of the country. They go down armed with darts, or long knives, to defend themselves against Kayes and Porpesses; and when they see an Awabi they pull it off suddenly before the animal is aware, because otherwise it would fasten itself to the rocks or the bottom of the sea so strongly that no force would be strong enough to tear it off. This shell is filled with a large piece of flesh of a yellowish or whitish colour, and a very tough substance, though without fibres. They say it was the common food of their necessitous ancestors, in memory whereof when they entertain company, they always provide a dish of it. It is also become a custom with them, as well among the vulgar as people of quality, that when they send one another presents of money, cloth, stuffs, fruits, or any thing else, a string, or at least, a small bit of the dried flesh of this shell is sent along with them as a good omen, and in order to put them in mind of the indigence of their forefathers. The flesh is cut into thin slices or strings, which are extended on a board and dried." + Of the Cephalopods several species are edible and are used for food in the maritime parts of Italy, France, Greece, and other countries of southern Europe, epicures selecting those kinds that are distinguished for their tenderness and sapidity. * See also Voy. of Advent. and Beagle, iii. 234. Hist. of Japan, i. 139. I cannot make out what the "Clacas" of the island of Teneriffe is. They are affirmed to be "absolutely the very best shell-fish in the world." "They grow in the rocks five or six under one great shell, through the top holes whereof they peep out with their nebs, from whence (the shells being broken a little more open with a stone) they draw them forth."-Sprat's Hist. R. Soc. p. 208. For example, the Loligo vulgaris affords at all seasons a tender and delicate dish, while the meat of L. saggittata is always tough and acid, and not presentable at fashionable tables. Some species of every genus was a favourite article of food with the old Greeks and Romans, probably from a current belief that the meat possessed aphrodisiac qualities. At the nuptial feast of Iphicrates, who married the daughter of Cotys, king of Thrace, a hundred polypi and sepia were served up. The Greek epicures prized them most when they were in a pregnant condition, and had them cooked with high sauces; while the hardy Lacedæmonian boiled the animals entire, and was not disgusted with the black broth formed by their inky liquor diffusing itself in the water. The Octopus or Polypus was held in highest estimation. The "good old story" of Philoxenus may be quoted in illustration: "Of all fish-eaters None sure excell'd the lyric bard Philoxenus. And the first glance inform'd him things went wrong. I were loath, howe'er, To troop with less than all my gear about me ;- The Loligo or Teuthis, served up with fat and green sauce, was only less esteemed. Thus we find in the Acharnians of Aristophanes a ludicrous curse against Antimachus, v. 1156: "Oh! may I see him longing for sleeve-fish, and just as it lands hissing hot from the fire, and he is about to fall to, may a dog snatch it away from him." And of the *See Quart. Rev. xxiii. 260, where the story is told at greater length. We need scarcely say that from it is borrowed the well-known lines in Pope : "A salmon's belly, Helluo, was thy fate: The Doctor call'd, declares all help too late. Is there no hope? alas !-then bring the jowl."" Diogenes, the cynic, died of eating a polypus raw. Upon which Aldrovandus remarks: "We shall be mad if we would imitate him withholding all preparation." Sepia we have it recorded that its flesh is tender and pleasant and digestible, and good also for the bowels. Alexis, a comic writer, describes the proper mode of dressing it. The cook says, "I will chop off the legs and fins of some of them to boil; and having cut up the rest of the body into many small squares, and rubbed them with a little salt, while the guests are at supper, I will serve them up hissing hot in the fryingpan.' I suspect that even these luscious details may not overcome your English repugnance to feed upon such a bizarre and ugly class of animals, although I have been assured by some venturesome experimentalists that our native exemplars make a good soup, and are very palatable in a more solid form. Of Loligo vulgaris, Mr. Couch attests that they are "excellent food, bearing a considerable resemblance to tripe;" and this he says of those that frequent the shores of Cornwall. By most eastern nations their indigenous Cephalopods are esteemed: they may be seen exposed for sale in the bazaars throughout India, ‡ in China, and in Japan; and a kind of Octopus furnishes the Japanese with a common Soccano or side dish," which is eaten either fresh, boiled, or pickled. § The Tunicata are to all outward appearance very unfit for the table; and I know but one of the class in which man has sought to indulge his caprice. This is the Piuri of South America, which is eaten either roasted or boiled, and has a taste similar to that of the lobster. Great quantities are annually dried for exportation; and in the interior it brings a great price, being considered a very powerful stimulant. The outer skin is coriaceous, and divided into separate cells by means of strong membranes: in each of these, in a detached state, is formed the Piuri. It is about the size of a large cherry, which it much resembles in colour. || The list of the terrestrial culinary species is a little, and only a little, more extensive. Several species of snails (Helix) are eaten, of which Draparnaud says, the H. naticoides is most tender and delicate, the best tasted and *The student will find all that the ancients have written of edible cuttlefish in Aldrovandus, Opera, v. 38. + Cornish Fauna. 82. Mr. Couch's comparison reminds us of the origin of the English name, Cuttlefish. Buttel, in German, signifies tripe; and the resemblance of the Octopus to tripe is obvious. Kuttelfisch, Bleckfisch, Meer-spinne (Sea-spider), and Polkuttel, are the German names of the Cephalopods. Bennett's Wand. New S. Wales, i. 344. § Kæmpfer's Japan, i. 137. Stevenson's South America, i. 124. most digestible of all, but the H. pomatia (Fig. 7), is the best known and most commonly found in the market.* The Romans took great pains in rearing these snails, which that luxurious people were wont to indulge in, not from Fig. 7. any peculiar relish for such tasteless food, but from a belief in their aphrodisiaical virtue, deduced, as Lister conjectures, from a knowledge of the seat of their reproductive organs. † The snails were kept in sties called cochlearia," and those had their distinct partitions, for sundry sorts of them: that the white, which came from the parts about Reate, should be kept apart by themselves: the Illyrian (and those were chiefe for greatnesse), alone by their selves: the Africans (which were most fruitful), in one several: and the Solitanes (simply the best of all the rest) in another. Nay more than that, he had a devise in his head to feed them fat, namely, with a certain paste made of cuit and wheat meale, and many other such like: to the end forsooth, that the glutton's table might be served plentifully with home-fed and franked great winkles also. And in time, men grew to take such a pride and glory in this artificial feat, and namely, in striving who should have the biggest, that in the end one of their shels ordinarily would containe eighty measures called Quadrants, if M. Varro say true, who is mine author."§ You need no longer hold up to imitation the temperance of the younger Pliny, whose supper consisted of only three snails, two eggs, a barley-cake, a lettuce, sweet wine, and snow; but, alas! participating in that degeneracy which is * Philippi mentions Helix naticoides, H. aspersa and H. vermiculata, as forming articles of common food in Sicily. Enum. Mollusc. Sicil. p. 126. + Lister in Phil. Trans. an. 1669, p. 1013. Exer. Anat. de Coch. 146. Hist. Anim. Ang. 112. The cochlearia were invented by Fulvius Hirpinus, a little before the civil war with Pompey the Great.-Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. ix. cap. 82. § Holland's Plinie, i. 267. Cuvier Hist. des. Sc. Nat. i. 227. The large species is presumed to have been the Achatina perdrix of Lamarck, a native of Africa. "Stewed shrimps and Afric cockles shall excite |