Having so far treated upon the generical distinctions of Voluta Pyrum, and pointed out the differences that exist among its principal supposed varieties, we arrive at another point of view in which the history of this shell becomes no less important, or less worthy of our consideration: the sacred character which from some superstitious causes, remote beyond all research of the present race of men, this shell has acquired in the Mythology of the Indian Nations: in the rites and worship of the Indian Brahma. Among these people this shell is called the Chank, or Sacred Chank, the emblem of an attribute of the divine power, and is constantly seen in one of the hands of the Indian Deity Vishnu, as a type of the renovation of the earth from the waters of the deluge.—The cause of this catastrophe of the earth, the deluge, they attribute to the wickedness of mankind in remote ages, which incensing the divine Brahma, he caused a flood of the waters to overflow the earth and destroy every vestige of the creation, animate and inanimate, that existed upon its surface. After awhile the supreme Brahma disposed to restore creation, commanded Vishnu to deliver the earth from the flood of waters, and in testimony of its deliverance Vishnu bears in his hand the Chank Shell, the symbol of its renovation.[[14]]

Without proceding at any considerable length into the history of those mythological persuasions, it may be permitted to observe that as a type of the divine power in relieving the earth from the flood of waters with which it was overwhelmed at the time of the deluge, this shell is held among the Indians of the Brahma persuasion as one of the most sacred emblems of that figurative divinity; and this religion, it will be remembered, extends over no small portion of India and China, and even to part of Russia and Tartary. Vishnu, as one of the three attributes or triad of Brahma, almost invariably appears with this symbol in his hand. Whether in their paintings, sculptures, or carvings, or in the sacred paraphernalia of their temples, the Chank-shell is the customary type of their deity Vishnu, and sometimes it occurs in the hands of the inferior deities,[[15]] to whom Vishnu is imagined to have confided a portion of his power. If the Chank be the object of their devotion in health, so also it is the object of their superstitions in sickness and in death. The medicine administered by the Priest to his patient in the time of illness, from the spout of one of these shells, is considered of greater efficacy than if taken from any other drinking vessel; that from the spout of a reversed shell has a reputation inestimable. These reversed shells occur so rarely, that if at any time some happy fortunate of the fishing tribe of Hindoos should be so lucky as to find one, he is indeed considered as a mortal favoured by their divinity Vishnu; this treasure of the deep is immediately deposited in one of their pagodas, to the great honour and happiness of the discoverer. A dose of medicine from such a shell is deemed infallible, if the malady of the patient be within the art of medicine to cure; for if this should fail, they rest persuaded nothing else can save the patient from the death awaiting him.

As these reversed shells are of very rare occurrence, the price they bear is of course of considerable. Very few of the Pagodas possess such an inestimable treasure as a Chank reversed, they will command a price in Asia surpassing infinitely any idea that might probably be formed upon the subject. Four or five hundred dollars have been given in China, among the worshippers of Brahma, for a shell of this kind. In India they have been known to produce from one hundred to two hundred rupees, sometimes, three, four, or five hundred rupees, or perhaps a larger sum. The shells of this kind, which are purchased from the natives and brought to Europe, it may be imagined, for this reason, can have been obtained only at a considerable cost. It was principally through the unrivalled liberality of the Conchologists of the low countries, about the beginning of the last century, that the cabinets of Europe became possessed of these rarities, and they still remain extremely scarce.

Only two examples of those reversed shells have occurred to our observation: both were of that kind in which the spire is elongated; the high spired Turnip Shell of the English cabinets. One of these reversed shells we saw in the year 1797, in the celebrated collection of Mon de Calonne, ci-devant Minister of France, and which passed, at a considerable price, into the collection of the Earl of Tankerville. The other occurred in the late Leverian Museum, which was distributed by public auction, in the year 1806. This last-mentioned shell was in a less perfect condition than might be wished; it was worn and mutilated, and for this reason did not obtain by any means such a price as was expected from its rarity: it produced only seven guineas, a sum considered much beneath its real value, even in its injured state.[[16]] In the month of April, in the year 1815, the same shell appeared in the sale of certain effects, the property of the Duke de Bourbon, at his residence in Great Ormond Street, Portman Square, where it was sold, we believe, at an advanced price. It is the figure of this last-mentioned shell that appears in the present plate. We have delineated the specimen with all faults for the sake of greater accuracy, and from a persuasion that the Naturalist would prefer a correct representation from an undoubted original, to any figure in which its actual defects might have been amended by the pencil of the artist. The shell is depicted in its natural size, and it will hence appear, is little inferior in point of magnitude to the generality of those shells of the same species which are not of the reversed kind. The species is sometimes known to grow to the length of seven or eight inches, but such examples are not common. Of the reversed kinds the Leverian specimen, as it has been emphatically denominated, is probably one of the largest known.

The smaller figure in the lower part of our plate is a representation of the same species in its usual form, and appears clothed or covered with the thick filmy epidermis, of a brown colour, with which the shell is naturally covered when in a living state. From this figure it will be perceived that the direction of the spiral wreath or whorls in the larger shell is exactly reversed, and that the mouth or aperture of the shell, which in the smaller figure appears on the right side, is seen in the reversed shell on the left. Thus upon the least comparison of the two figures, the true character of the reversed shell will be distinctly perceived.

We should not omit to mention that the smaller figure which represents the unreversed shell would appear of the same pallid hue as the reversed shell, upon the removal of the epidermis with which it is enveloped. Sometimes, however, when this common kind is particularly fine, the exterior surface is delicately tinged with a less pallid hue, and the pillar lip and opening yellowish, inclined to flesh colour. That particular kind or variety which in England is denominated the low spired or heavy Turnip Shell, is sometimes pleasingly diversified with more vivid tints, and the younger shells occasionally spotted with brown, upon a ground tinged with yellowish or buff colour. We have no knowledge of any reversed shell of this latter kind, excepting one which is in the Museum at Copenhagen.

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London. Published as the Act directs, by E. Donovan & Mess.rs Simpkin & Marshall, Nov.r 1. 1822.