Page:Folklore1919.djvu/238

226 those east of Italy nearly all belong to Corinth or to some of her colonies, and from there the symbol may have been carried to Syracuse. But the majority of the coins thus marked coming from Italy seem to have been derived from those of Tarentum, where tradition places a settlement, probably of Cretans, long before the arrival of the Dorian colonists. Motya and Panormus, which also bear the symbol on their coins, were originally Phoenician settlements.

Everything points to the fact that the symbol was used by the Phoenicians, and by the traders connected directly or indirectly with Corinth and Tarentum, both cities in whose name occurs the stem inth or ent, which has been thought to belong to some pre-Hellenic trading people. It is worthy of note, too, that tombs, thought to bear some connection with megalithic culture, are found in Sicily, especially near Syracuse, while near Tarentum are the only dolmens to be found in the Italian peninsula.

Our evidence is far from conclusive, yet it seems to point to some connection between the scallop shell and those early prospectors who were first responsible for erecting the megalithic monuments, and whose trade fell later into the hands of the Cretans and Phoenicians. For what purpose they used the scallop we can only surmise. It is said that the deep valves of the scallop "are used by fishermen as lamps for their huts," and one might imagine that they could be so employed in mines; but mining in early days was probably merely surface digging, for which lamps would not be required. It is possible that they were used for digging or scraping together the ore, or perhaps for some other purpose connected with their occupation as prospectors, but we must be content to leave the problem unsolved, an opportunity for some future inquiry.