COLLECTOR TELLS STORY OF SEA SHELLS

The Harpa Davidus, David's Harp, is one of Griffin's favorite shells in his collection. It is one of many shells in Griffin's collection that has religious significance.

O. David Griffin, pastor emeritus at New McKendree United Methodist Church, spent a great deal of his life collecting sea shells and in the process he learned a great deal about each shell he collected.

When Griffin and his wife Jearlean lived in the Indo-Pacific in the 1960s as missionaries, he needed a diversion from his day-to-day activities. So he got involved in collecting sea shells.

Every shell he dove for was taken live, Griffin proudly said. Taking the shells live, meant that their quality was much higher than beached shells worn by sand and surf.

He has around 3,000 shells in his collection and over the years he has given numerous presentations to community organizations, schools and churches.

He especially likes the shells that have religious significance. Shells like Chama Lazrus (named that because Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish naturalist and botanist, also known as Linne, who established a modern scientific method of naming plants and animals, imagined the sores on Lazarus looked like this shell), Turris Babylonia (named because it looked like the Tower of Babel to Linne), Conus Ebraeus or otherwise known as its common name Hebrew's Cone (named that because the markings on the shell look like the Hebrew text) and Harpa Davidus or David's Harp (named for the shell's similarity to the strings on a harp).

Griffin's been out of the shell game since a short time before he retired in 1993, but it's clear he still enjoys his collection.

He can point out where a shell was injured and it tried to heal itself. He can even successfully blow loud notes out of Triton's Trumpet, a large shell that was used in his missionary days on Guam to signal Sunday school and church service. One blow was for Sunday school and two blows on the shell signaled church service.

Griffin's collection mostly consists of shells he obtained while in the Indo-Pacific, but he also has shells from Africa, the Mediterranean, Ireland and Florida to name a few locales that have filled out his collection.

He's got shells that are 3,600 years old that were found in an archaeological dig where Jericho once stood.

Some shells from Jericho were found in the bricks. He has a shell that was probably worn by a moon worshiper in the time of Abraham. He stressed that the shell "might have been worn by a moon worshiper." The shell has a hole where a leather strap would be threaded through for a person to wear the shell.

There is a theory that the people of Jericho were plagued by more than a military strike. He has a type of shell, Bulinus Trucatius, that was found in old Jericho stratum seven which is known to cause schistosomiasis, an Egyptian kidney disease.

The tiny shell was found inside another type of shell, Melanopsis Praemorsa, which was found in the bricks and debris of Old Jericho. The disease may have been passed through the water supply. Schistosomiasis remains were found in the bladder area of some Jericho skeletal remains.

Griffin's collection has more than just religious significant shells and he can tell you a story about each one.