Snails by Moonlight

Snails by Moonlight, with Woodlouse & Saxophone

Snails might be called bullhorns in Cornwall, but they're lovers, not fighters. So renowned is their prowess that snail-shells were once used as a declaration of love. Charles Godfrey Leland tells of

"a lady who caused an intense excitement in a village by collecting about a hundred large snails, gilding their shells, and then turning them loose in several gardens, where their discovery excited, as may be supposed, great excitement among the finders."(1)

Leland also notes that

"The gypsies believe that the Earth-fairies are the foes of every kind of worm and creeping insect with the exception of the snail"(1)

and surely this is recommendation enough to allow them room in the garden. It is actually only the garden snail (with its large, brown mottled shell) which destroys growing leaves; other snails (such as the very common banded snails) prefer dead leaves or algae. Banded snails range from moon-yellow to humbug-striped brown & white. This variability has made them of great interest to geneticists, and only the database on human DNA is larger than that of banded snails.(2)

In Aztec legend, the Moon is Tecuciztecatl, the God of Snails. He liked jewellery and finery, so perhaps that's why snails travel on their own carpets of silver.(3)

This is the first illustration for my 2018 calendar, 'In Praise of Idle Gardeners', which will celebrate such wonders as nettles, caterpillars, and dead leaves.

It is also available as a greetings card, which you can send to the object of your fancy, or hang on your wall to create an atmosphere of romance.

1. Charles Godfrey Leland, Gypsy sorcery & fortune telling, illustrated by numerous incantations, specimens of medical magic, anecdotes, & tales, 1889
2. Richard Mabey & Peter Marren, Bugs Britannica, 2010
3. James Riordan, An Illustrated Treasury of Fairy & Folk Tales, 1986