i hate snails. i really do.

Some amazing facts about snails:

"A popular divinatory use for the snail, found in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland as well as England, is to place it in the ashes of the hearth, or on a plate of flour, and examine the marks of the creature's random meanderings to see the initial of your future spouse's name. The first known mention of this belief is in Gay's Shepherd's Week (1714: 34). "

"Others claimed that it was lucky to throw a snail over your left shoulder (Henderson, 1879: 116). "

"They also had their uses in folk medicine, being recommended for earache (prick with a needle and drip the juice into the ear), coughs and colds (boil snails in barleywater), to remove warts, cure the ague (strung on a thread and frizzled over the fire) (Black 1883: 56-7) and for gout (pounded into a plaster) (Aubrey, 1686/1880: 256). "

"The well-known rhyme recited to snails by children:
Snail, snail, Come out of your hole
Or else I'll beat you, As black as coal.
Snail, snail, Put out your horns
I'll give you bread, And barley corns,

was first printed in the mid-18th century, but the Opies point out its very wide geographical spread, taking in most of Europe and China, which possibly argues for it being considerably older."

I guess i really had too much time on my hands to be doing research on snails. Really fascinating isn't it? there's even a rhyme for snails. =.="

Brings back the memories of how i first developed my phobia toward all mollusks, annelids and many other disgusting, soft, worm/milipede/slug-like bodies. Happened many years ago, when i was still in elementary school. My brothers, cousins, neighbours and I grouped round a table with some match sticks, tongs and some kind of container(i think it was porcelain) and we started to make a mini-bonfire. Then we went out hunting for things we could burn, and came back with a load of snails and milipedes.

we picked up the snails which have already shrunken into their shells out of fear and placed them right in the middle of the bonfire and watch it shrivel out, with greenish-yellowish-milky-coloured "blood" ooze out of its body, and then finally it was left with only the burnt-black shell. we also did the same with the milipedes and watch it roll into a ball and oozing out some-coloured "blood" and turned into ashes.

Ever since then, i've had that phobia, especially towards snails. i hate seeing them, watching them crawling, or stepping on them, or WATCH it get stepped, or an already-stepped-on snail. when i see a snail, i'll be sure to keep my distance. i just wonder how some people can just pick the snails up and throw them at the wall, or over the wall. Not like i care if the snails die or not but it's just disgusting and creepy. the way the snails with its soft moist body crawl around, giving displeasure to housewives, gardeners, and those who step on them.

But ever since that mini-bonfire incident, i've managed to develop a liking for burning things. not to mention cutting things too. i remember the time me and my brother would go out hunting for grasshoppers and locusts to burn. and once they've been "cooked" we gave it to our dog, Brownie. Brownie really loved those special treats we gave him (he's dead now though. and no, it wasn't because of the fried grasshoppers). and you know, the cooked grasshoppers smelled so good and looked so crispy. i might actually eat one one day, probably for survival. LOL

i really don't know why i'm talking about this but oh well. just some reminiscing thats all. ahh.. my childhood days.

i can't believe i can actually write this crap with a whole econs assignment due tomoro which i havent even started. and i actually volunteered to accompany my mom grocery shopping later. oh well. i'll manage somehow. (oh yeah. it has already been a week since mom came back, and everything has became a standstill. if you actually know what i mean.)

alright. so much for snails. i'm off now.