Abstract
IN a foot-note to my letter on this subject (NATURE, vol. lvi. p. 30, May 13, 1897), I remarked that the Khchau (a shellfish), applied by the Cambodians to the divination of a war, is likely to belong to the family of Paludinidæ, taking into consideration the fact that the Japanese and the Chinese of former days used some species of viviparus (= Paludina) for the same purpose. Lately, while examining M. A. Parvie's article “Excursions dans le Cambodge, &c.” in Cochin-Chiné Française; Excursions et Reconnaissances, No. 9, p. 479, 1882, I have come across a passage giving confirmation to my view, The author, giving nomenclatures of the Cambodian molluscs, identifies the native Kechau (which is doubtless another French form of the spelling Khchau) with the Latin “Paludina”; whereas the allied genus Ampullaria has its Cambodian name “Tal.”
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MINAKATA, K. On Augury from Combat of Shell-fish. Nature 57, 342 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/057342b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/057342b0
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