Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/97

* SHELLEY. 73 so liberally of his scanty means as to keep him- self ahvaj-s poor. He was constant in friendly kindness to all associated with him. and lip at all times- went about doing cliarity anionj; the poor. He was violent in indif;nation against actual wrong; but gentleness cliaracterized him. His later years were full of sadness from one or an- other cause, and though he died yovuig there was to him nothing [jrcniature in liis death. His verse and prose have been published in eight vol- umes by Forman (London, 187-80) ; the poems alone by W. M. Rossetti (ib., 1870. 1878, 1888), by Dowden (ib., 1899), and bv Woodberry (Cam- bridge, 1892. 1903). Consult" also: Dowden, Life (London, 1896) ; and for the view of his con- temporaries, Hogg, Life (ib., 1858) ; Peacock, Mc7iwirs (ib., 1847) ; Leigh Hunt, Autohiography (ib., 1860) : Trelawny, Records (ib., 1858). SHELLEY'S CASE, Rule in. A rule of law relating to estates in real property, declared by the courts in an English case decided about 1591. The principle involved was known to the English law before that date. Briefly stated, the rule provides that where an estate of freehold is con- veyed to a person, with a remainder to his heirs, the latter is a clause of limitation and not of purchase, that is, the ancestor takes the estate included in the cause, and the heirs take noth- ing. The rule became a part of the common law and prevailed at one time in the United States, but most of the States have abolished or modified it liy statute, and give effect to an express re- mainder to heirs. Consult: Kent, Commentaries ; Preston, Essay on the Quality and Quantity of Estates (Philadelphia, 1843).' SHELL MONEY. A primitive medium of exchange which consisted of certain sea-shells in their natural condition, or nearly so, or of pieces of sea-shells formed into beads, or otherwise shaped. In the former class fall the money cowry (see Cowry), the dentalium, and several other shells : and in the latter the wampum of the Eastern United States and currencies of the Pacific Coast. All money shells were first prized for th^i.' rarity and beauty, and only later liecame a me .m of exchange. On the coast of Puget Soun..; .:k1 northward the tusk-shell (Dentaliiun) prehistorically served the purposes of money among the Indians of a large region, and main- tained this value and function imtil very recent times. The shell money of the second class was more nearly a true coinage, since it derived its valvie from the art and labor which had been expended upon it and the dilBcultv of counterfeiting. As late as 1882, at least, the local trade of the Solo- mon Islands was carried on by means of flat beads, made from certain small sea-shells which were groiuid to the proper shape by the women. As the proper grinding of these was a slow and skillful process, no more was made than was needed, and the recognized relative value was steadily maintained. Verv similar to this was the wampum (q.v.). which was found in use among the tribes of the eastern half of North America at the time of its discovery by Euro- peans. Wampum circulated at well-understood rates of exchange throughout the interior as far as the Saskatchewan River and the Rocky INIoun- tains. Certain coast tribes favorably situated (notably the Narraganset) made wampum as a regular occupation. The best and most was made SHEIVr. between Cape May and Cape Cod. These beads were of two kinds — a more precious sort formed only from the violet-colored muscle-scar in the interior of the quahog ( Venus mercenaria.), and a white sort, or 'scawan' of inferior value, com- monly made from the central column of one or the other of the large spiral winkles or conchs (q.v.). The inferiority of the latter kind lay in the greater case witii which it could be produced. The wampum, sometimes carrieil loose. I)nt usual- ly strung upon sinew threads in lengths of ap- proximately six feet, was a true currencv: the merchants and traders, both Dutch and English, at once adojiteil this native money, and for many years used it in preferenfe to European coins not only in Indian trading, but in affairs between themselves. Seeing this new use, the Indians made an increased qviantity, and, worse, the white man, using machinery, began to turn out cheaply great quantities of shell beads. The result was a rapid deiueciation of values, so that frequent enactments by the local governments were re- quired to keep a fathom of wampum at par with designated numbers of pence or stivers. It final- ly disappeared not only because the Indians ceased to make it. but because they hoarded all they could obtain. In California several fiu'ms of shell money cir- culated, each piece of a definite shape and "care- fully made by grinding down for one inferior kind ('hawok') some clam-shell, as Saxidomus, and for the other more valuable kind ('ullo'), abalone-shells. A great amount of this shell money was in circulation among the aborigines of California and Oregon previous to 1850: and it long continued to be held at a high valuation, measured in gold, among the Indians, and is stilt hoarded by the old men. Consult: Ingersoll. in Country Cousins (New _Ynrk, 1884), and the many historical sources of information mentioned by him ; also several papers by R. E. Stearns in the publications of the United States National iluseum. For the Pacific Coast, consult Powers. Contributions to North American Ethnology, vol. iii. (Washington, 1877). " SHEL'TON, Thomas (fl. 1012). The first translator of Uon Quixote into English. He is thought to hae been the Thomas Sheldon who was entered at Oriel College. Oxford, in 1581. Shelton was later connected in someway with Lord Howard of Walden. In l(i07 he translated the first part of Cervantes's famous romance from the Spanish edition issued in that year at Brussels. In 1612 the translation appeared and met with instant success. The anonymous translation of the sec- ond part (1020) is also Shelton's beyond reason- able doubt. Shelton was thus the first to intrn- duce to Englishmen a romance which has reallv become a part of English literature, through imi- tation and absorption. But Shelton was not so accurate in his scholarship as some recent translators have been. Consult the reprint of his translation edited by Kelly (in "Tudor Transla- tions," London, 1890). This translation is valu- able especially because its quaint Elizabethan English gives the same flavor as the now archaic Spanish of Cervantes. SHEM (Heb., name, or possibly an abbrevia- tion of Hliemiiel, name of God). According to the Book of Genesis, the eldest of the three sons of Noah, from whom the whole world was re-