No-butt snails

No-butt snails

　　　　Snails are shell-bearing creatures that can be served as food. All snails in the world have butts, yet the snails in the pond in front of Xingfu Temple in Changshu are naturally butt-less—a truly curious phenomenon. The Ming dynasty’s Gong Liben wrote in *Pine Window Essays*: “When Master Poshan returned from outside and saw his disciples cooking snails, he smashed all their butts off. The master then held the snails, chanted a spell, and placed them in the stream. The snails came back to life, and to this day there are still no-butt snails in the stream.” This shows that such snails have existed for hundreds of years and have inspired a wonderful legend passed down among the people. As for why only this particular pond is home to these butt-less snails—the mystery remains for biologists to further research and explore.

(Changshu)