[29] _Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture_, pp. 84-91.
[30] G. A. Reisner. _Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Der_, Vol. I, 1908, Plates 6 and 7.
[31] Jackson's _Shells_, pp. 128, 174, 176, 178.
Shells were thought to impart vitality and give protection, not only to human beings, but even to the plots of the earliest florists and agriculturists. "Mary, Mary, quite contrairie", who in the nursery rhyme has in her garden "cockle-shells all in row", was perpetuating an ancient custom. The cockle-shell is still favoured by conservative villagers, and may be seen in their garden plots and in graveyards. Shells placed at cottage doors, on window-sills, and round fire-places are supposed to bring luck and give security, like the horse-shoe on the door.
The mother goddess, remembered as the fairy queen, is still connected with shells in Hebridean folk-lore. A Gaelic poet refers to the goddess as "the maiden queen of wisdom who dwelt in the beauteous bower of the single tree where she could see the whole world and where no fool could see her beauty". She lamented the lack of wisdom among women, and invited them to her knoll. When they were assembled there the goddess appeared, holding in her hand the _copan Moire_ ("Cup of Mary"), as the blue-eyed limpet shell is called. The shell contained "the ais (milk) of wisdom", which she gave to all who sought it. "Many", we are told, "came to the knoll too late, and there was no wisdom left for them."[32] A Gaelic poet says the "maiden queen" was attired in emerald green, silver, and mother-of-pearl.
[32] Dr. Alexander Carmichael, _Carmina Gadeiica_, Vol. II, pp.247 _et seq._ Mr. Wilfrid Jackson, author of _Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture_, tells me that the "blue-eyed limpet" is our common limpet--_Patella vulgata_--the Lepas, Patelle, Jambe, OEil de boue, Bernicle, or Flie of the French. In Cornwall it is the "Crogan", the "Bornigan", and the "Brennick". It is "flither" of the English, "flia" of the Faroese, and "lapa" of the Portuguese. A Cornish giant was once, according to a folk-tale, set to perform the hopeless task of emptying a pool with a single limpet which had a hole in it. Limpets are found in early British graves and in the "kitchen middens". They are met with in abundance in cromlechs, on the Channel Isles and in Brittany, covering the bones and the skulls of the dead. Mr. Jackson thinks they were used like cowries for vitalizing and protecting the dead.