Hi Conch-L enthousiasts,
 
yes, the sounds are aviable enough to form a primitive language: on the
Canaries, blowing the Charonia tritonis seguenzae was developped by farmers
into a language. This custom seems to have remained until the fifties and
was probably derived from the guanchas.
As for religion and shells, no shell got the tremedous inpact as the Xancus
pyrym. There has been a book with the complete story, and articles in the
Nautilus. Stamps, coins two milleniums old and all of India thinking and
living this shell. Only one month ago I got a left handed one, and together
with the gift shells from so many people will never sell this. It's the
fabulous anti Chimaeria thing. Superstitious as I'm.
 
Guido
 
 
>Hi Art,
>A properly blown shell trumpet can produce an extremely impressive
>sound.  It has to be blown like a bugle or trumpet though, not like a
>saxophone or a police whistle.  When my youngest son was younger, I
>made him such a horn from an old Charonia sauliae about 10 inches
>long.  At first he only managed to create reptilian sounds similar to
>those you described;  but eventually he could generate a blast that
>would rattle the windows in the house - and this wasn't a big horn.
>I also donated a shell horn to a camp.  This one was made from a
>Pleuroploca gigantea about 22 inches in length.  When it is blown, it
>can be heard in all parts of the camp, and is used to summon the
>campers back from their various activities.  Across open water, such
>a sound would carry a lot farther than it does in the woods.
>Paul M.
>Rhode Island
 
 
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