EX LIBRIS
BERTRAM C.A WINDLC" K< . K S.G. FRS f.S.A

IN Mr. Wilfred Jackson's recent work, Shells as Evidence
of the Migrations of Early Culture (Manchester Uni-
versity Press), will be found a very erudite account of the
uses to which certain sea-shells are put — (the cowrie, as
money, for4 instance, is familiar to everybody) — and the
customs and associations which have grown up around
them. This in itself is a valuable contribution to know-
ledge ; but of greater importance is the light shed on a
thorny question long debated by ethnologists. When we
find a story or an unusual custom in two or more distant
localities, and are convinced that these have been where
they are from very early times, are we to suppose that
they have had a common source or that they have in-
dependently originated ? Where the tale is an obvious
one, such as the parable of the body and its members,
which is not only Biblical but found in other sacred
writings, it is easy to suppose that it may have occurred
independently to different people in different parts of
the world. But when we see that there are something like
three hundred and fifty variants of " Cinderella " scat-
tered all over the world, or that, in quite remote places^
far divided from one another, what we call " The Man
in the Moon " is supposed to be a hare or a rabbit, a
legend which underlies the immortal tale of " The Tar
Baby," then it becomes difficult to believe that such ideas
can have had other than a common origin.

Mr. Jackson debates this point with great knowledge
and skill, beginning with the question of the purple dye
extracted from shell-fish (chiefly Murex) and subsequently
dealing with the conch and chank, " old Triton's wreathed
horn " ; pearls and pearl-shells ; and cowries and their
uses. Not everybody who has heard of " Tyrian purple "
and read of the remarkable industry in that dye associated
with the names of Tyre and Sidon, is aware that the secret
of the shell-purple seems, like so many other secrets, to
have first been discovered in Crete. From that place it
spread to all the shores of the Mediterranean, a fact easily
understood. It spread to England and Ireland ; and, as
it was known in Asia and in South and Central America,
it must have spread to those parts of the world unless
it was there independently discovered, as, of course, it
might have been. When, however, we place side by side
with these facts the other remarkable things which are
detailed in this book with regard to other shells, it becomes
clear that the dissemination theory offers the only tenable
impossible to see how otherwise we

PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

ETHNOLOGICAL SERIES
No. II.

SHELLS AS EVIDENCE OF THE MIGRATIONS
OF EARLY CULTURE

PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

(H. M. MCKECHNIE, SECRETARY)

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MAPKAS : 167 MOUNT KOAD

PURPLE-SHELLS.

TRUMPET-SHELLS.

(1) Murex trunculus^ L. \.

(2) Purptira h&mastoma. Lam. ^.

(3) Murex branderis, L. \ (after Reeve).

(4) Triton tritonis, L. ^-, showing blow-hole on side of spire.

(5) Turbinella pyrn tn, L. (the Chank), J. showing blow-hole at apex of spire.

(From drawings by Mrs. Wilfrid Jackson. )

SHELLS AS EVIDENCE OF

THE MIGRATIONS OF

EARLY CULTURE

BY

J. WILFRID JACKSON, F.G.S.

Assistant Keeper Manchester Museum
Honorary Librarian of the Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland

MANCHESTER
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

12 LIME GROVE, OXFORD ROAD

LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.

LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, &c.

PUBLICATIONS OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

No. CXI I.

DEDICATED

TO
MY FATHER-IN-LAW,

ROBERT STANDEN,

WHOSE VALUED FRIENDSHIP AND
LEARNED GUIDANCE

THE AUTHOR
HAS ENJOYED FOR MANY YEARS

CONTENTS.

Page

PREFACE ix

INTRODUCTION ..

CHAPTER I. — The Geographical Distribution of the Shell -

Purple Industry I

CHAPTER II. — Shell-Trumpets and their Distribution in the

Old and New World 30

CHAPTER III. — The Geographical Distribution of the use of

Pearls and Pearl-Shell 70

CHAPTER IV. — The use of Cowry-Shells for the Purposes of

Currency, Amulets, and Charms ... ... ... ... 123

APPENDIX I. ... ... 195

APPENDIX II. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 207

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 209

INDEX 211

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page

I. Purple-Shells and Trumpet-Shells Frontispiece

II. Map showing the Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry ... 2

III. Map showing the Distribution of Shell-Trumpets 31

IV. Aztec Picture Writings facing 52

V. Maya Sculpture and Picture Writings ... ... 58

VI. Incarnations of Indian and Japanese Gods ... ... ,, 62

VII. Map showing the Distribution of the use of Pearls and Pearl-
Shells 71

VIII. Map showing the recorded range of Cyprcea moneta and annulus 124

IX. Map showing the Distribution of the use of Cowries ... ... 125

X. Cowries used for Currency, etc. ... ... ... ... ... 156

XI. Strings of Cowries used for Symbolic Messages, etc 162

XII. Chinese Hieroglyphs for Cowry and Tortoise ... ... ... 180

XIII. Ovula (Calpurnus) vcrrucosa, L ... ... ... ... 191

PREFACE.

In the course of my preliminary studies of <l The
Migrations of Early Culture,"1 1 was struck with the
remarkable cultural uses to which shells were put in
widely separated parts of the world : but it was not
until Mr. W. J. Perry wrote his memoir upon " The Geo-
graphical Distribution of Megalithic Monuments and
Ancient Mines"2 that I came to realise what an impor-
tant part the search for shells had played in the diffusion
of the elements of culture and in the upbuilding of civili-
zation.

Thus it became clear that a serious attempt must be
made to collect the conchological evidence. In considera-
tion of the pitfalls into which archaeologists and numis-
matists had fallen in the past through the failure correctly
to identify the shells with which they had to deal, it was
equally clear that the necessary preliminary work should
be done, not by an ethnographer, but by someone with a
thorough knowledge of the systematic zoology of the
Mollusca.

In Mr. Robert Standen and Mr. Wilfrid Jackson
the Manchester Museum is fortunate in possessing two
acknowledged experts in systematic conchology. After
discussing' the question with them, Mr. Jackson undertook
the task of collecting the ethnographical evidence relating
to the cultural use of shells and of determining the specific
identity of the latter. The first fruits of this preliminary
survey rivalled the products of "Father O'Flynn's" intel-
lectual achievements—

" Down from mythology into thayology,
Troth ! and conchology, if he'd the call."

1 Manchester University Press, 1915.

- Manchester Memoirs ( Lit. and Phil. Soc.J, November 24th, 1915.

x Preface.

Mr. Jackson submitted a series of six reports* upon
his work to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical
Society and these were published in its Proceedings. The
Council of the Society has courteously given him per-
mission to republish the four more important of these
contributions, with certain additions.

This book represents nothing more than the informa-
tion garnered in this preliminary survey ; and no one
recognises its incompleteness more than its author. But
I have urged Mr. Jackson to make these results more
generally accessible by collecting them into a book, because
they reveal the richness and the importance of this branch
of ethnography. It is hoped that by appealing to the
interest of conchologists and ethnologists it will stimulate
some of them to join in the search for further evidence
and assist in collecting and sifting the material for an
exhaustive treatise.

The numerous letters which Mr. Jackson has received
from all parts of the world since he began the publication
of his reports suggests that the interest in this line of
investigation is real and widespread and that the wider
distribution of this collection of essays will achieve the
end he has in view,

Mr. Jackson has already received help from so many
correspondents that it would be a difficult task to thank
them all individually. But the fact that Mr. Robert
Standen's help has always been given him is a sufficient
guarantee of the reliability of his identification of the
shells.

G. ELLIOT SMITH.

The University,
Manchester,
30 April, [917.

* For a list of these, see page 210 of this book.

INTRODUCTION.

In most places where shells are used it is not their
decorative or aesthetic value to which primary importance
is attached. Some arbitrary meaning that, in the course
of ages, has come to be attached to or associated with
certain shells determined the value assigned to them and
impelled men to search for them far and wide and often
at great peril. The cowry is widely believed to confer
fertility on women and to help in the process of parturition.
They are, therefore, worn on girdles by maidens, presented
to them as bridal offerings, and used by sterile or preg-
nant women to attain these respective benefits. They are
also put into graves to confer vitalising power and ensure
the continuance of the deceased's existence, i.e., not merely
life but also resurrection. They have been used as arti-
ficial eyes for mummies, and also as charms against the
evil eye, and to bring good luck. Hence they are used
for games of chance. They were probably the earliest form
of currency.

Many of these attributes of the cowry were also trans-
ferred to the snail shell. Like the cowry it also was the
source of life, the parent of mankind, the dwelling place
of the deity who conferred the blessings of fertility, not
only to mankind, but also to his crops. The murmur of
the shell was the voice of the god, and the trumpet made
of a shell became an important instrument in initiation
ceremonies and in temple worship. In the search for these
shells special significance probably first came to be attached
to pearls, which, however, had been known for many ages
before then to the oyster-eating makers of kitchen-middens ;

xii Introduction.

and some of the magical powers associated with shells
were also transferred to pearls.

Pearl-like bodies are obtained from a considerable
number of shells in addition to those of the pearl oyster;
and it is significant that a special cultural importance
came to be attached to most, if not all of them.

Of these the Abalone (Hali0tis), the classical designa-
tion of which is " Ear of Venus," is used for ornament and
currency. Its resemblance to a human ear and the serial
arrangement of the perforations near its margin suggest
the possibility that the custom of piercing the helix in a
linear series may have some connexion with this likeness.

It is all the more suggestive when this method of
perforation is found in association with the use of an ear-
pendant made of Haliotis shell.1 Strombtis gigas (the
common conch), which is used as a ceremonial trumpet,
produces pink pearls ; and Turbinella pyrmti (the Indian
chank), which is the trumpet and libation-vessel of India,
Thibet and China, has pink and pale red pearls. Another
of this series is Tridacna gigas (Giant Clam), which is
used in Oceania as well as in the West Indies for
making axes and other tools, and in certain Christian
churches in Europe as receptacles for ' holy water.' Venus
mercenaria (Quahog or Hard Clam) is used for making
shell money " Wampum " in North America. Nautilus
pompilius is cut up and used for ornament and as eyes
for Torres Straits mummies. It is also used as a drinking-

o

vessel in India and elsewhere.

If one asks the question how did these remarkable
qualities come to be attributed to certain shells, the answer
is plainly given by the collection of data brought together
by Mr. Jackson.

The whole of the complex shell-cult seems to have

1 " Handbook of American Indians," Vol. I, p. 17.

Introduction,

Xlll

sprung out of the fanciful resemblance which a particular
group of primitive men imagined they could detect between
the cowry and the female organs of reproduction.

In his remarkable work " D'Amboinsche Rariteit-
kamer," published in Amsterdam in 1741, Rumphius
informs his readers that the cowry was referred to by
Ennius under the name "matriculus "; and he explains the
meaning of this expression thus : — " Apud utorsque nomen
accepterunt a similitudine pudendi muliebris, quod Graeci
Chaeron, Latini porcum et porculum vocant, cujus aliquam
similitudinem refert hujus Conchaerina " (II Boek, p. 1 13).
Twenty-one years later Adanson, in his " Histoire natur-
elle du Senegal,'"2 referring to the use of the terms
" Pucelage " and " Concha Venerea," says : — " Concha
Venerea sic dicta quia partem foemineam quodam modo
repraesentat : externe quidem per labiorum fissuram,
interne vero propter cavitatem uterum mentientem. . . .
Sunto igitur dictae Porcellanae (id est Venereae) ob
aliquam cum pudendo muliebri similitudinem." Aldrov.
Exang., p. 552. These ideas are still current in Japan at
the present day.3

That such fancied resemblances were really regarded I
so seriously in ancient times as to confer vital powers
upon the simulating object has just been claimed for the
mandrake by Dr. Rendel Harris.4 He refers the origin
of this association to Cyprus, which also gave the cowry
its scientific name, Cyprs:a ; and in attributing the origin
of the cult of Aphrodite to the magical fertilising property
of the anthropoid mandrake (when worn against the flesh

- " Coquillages," p. 65 — Paris, 1762.

:5 W. L. Hildburgh, " Some Japanese Charms connected with the
making of Clothing," Man, Feb., 1917, p. 28. (See the Appendix of this
book, p. 205).

4 " The Origin of the Cult of Aphrodite," Manchester, 1916, republished
in his "Ascent of Olympus," 1917.

xiv Introduction.

as a girdle) he emphasises precisely the same features in
the development of this belief as the history of the cultural
use of the cowry also reveals. In both cases a fancied
likeness to the organs of reproduction was supposed to
confer upon the object — whether it was the cowry or the
mandrake — the magical power of conferring fertility. In
both cases this influence was supposed to be exerted upon
women, if they wore the amulets upon their girdle. The
link of both practices with Cyprus suggests the influence
of one belief in originating the other.

But though Dr. Rendel Harris has demonstrated that
Aphrodite was a personification of the mandrake, this is
by no means the whole of the story. It affords no
explanation why Aphrodite was female, and only the
slightest and somewhat fanciful reasons for the personifi-
cation or the magical potency of the goddess. Nor has
Dr. Rendel Harris given any reasons for the remarkable
belief that it is necessary to tie a dog to the plant " to
pull it up, which will give a great shreeke at the digging
up : otherwise if a man should do it, he should surely die
in short space after." 5

If it be assumed that Aphrodite was born of the sea
foam ; and reached Cyprus as a cowry, which, for the
reasons that this book aims at expounding, was already
the symbol of womanhood, the source of fertility, the
giver of life and resurrection, the whole of the wonder-
ful story told by Dr. Rendel Harris assumes a new
meaning. The cowry-beliefs were planted in Cyprus ;
and there, under the influence of those horticultural ideas
which, according to him, were current in the Eastern
Mediterranean, the plant that also presents grotesque
likenesses to the reproductive organs was regarded as the
impersonation of those powers which, for similar reasons,
had been assigned to the cowry.
•r> <9/>. fit., p. 6.

Introduction. xv

That the cowry shell was consecrated to Venus
and that the beliefs associated with it had long been
current in the Mediterranean is clear from the writings
of Pliny (Bk. IX., chap. 41). In the Defence made by
Apuleius against the charge of sorcery these ideas con-
cerning the cowry's magical properties are discussed/'

Later on I shall explain how the properties of cowries
became transferred in some part to pearls. In the notes
on Pliny's Natural History (Bonn's Edition, 1855), Dr.
Bostock and Mr. H. T. Riley (Vol. II., p. 433) refer to
the habits of dog-fishes (" Canes marini "), and quote
from Procopius (De Bell. Pers. B. I, c. 4) the following
"wonderful story in relation to this subject" : — " sea-dogs
are wonderful admirers of the pearl-fish, and follow them
out to sea. ... A certain fisherman, having watched for
the moment when the shell-fish was deprived of the pro-
tection of its attendant sea-dog, . . . seized the shell-fish
and made for the shore. The sea-dog, however, was soon
aware of the theft, and making straight for the fisherman,
seized him. Finding himself thus caught, he made a last
effort, and threw the pearl-fish on shore, immediately on
which he was torn to pieces by its protector."

This legend is linked by numerous bonds of connexion
with the stories of dragon-protectors of pearls and also
with those relating to dolphins. It would take me too
far afield to discuss its genesis here, but there can be little
doubt that it is a garbled version of the dangers from
sharks incurred by divers for pearls and conch shells in
the Indian Ocean (see/wA?<7, p. 88). In the Far East the
shark is replaced by the dragon (see postea, p. 103). I
have referred to this matter only because I believe it will

<; " Apvlei Apologia," with Introduction and Commentary by Professor
II. E. Butler, and A. S. Owen, Oxford, 1914, § 33 and 34, and especially the
notes upon them.

xvi Introduction.

prove to be the source of the remarkable account of the
necessity for obtaining the dog's help to root up a man-
drake, and the explanation of the danger of this operation
to man. It is, in fact, yet one more link between the
beliefs associated with shells and dragons and the birth of
Aphrodite.

In the appendix Mr. Jackson has collected some
curious information relating to the association of a dog
with the discovery of purple. Certain of the associated
legends suggest that this may be another link in the com-
plex chain of connexions between the beliefs regarding
shells and those relating to the origin of Venus.

Another factor which may have played some part in
the development of this belief was the Southern Arabian
legend that trees might be personified, usually as women,
and that it was dangerous to touch them.7 It is probable
that, when the use of the cowry and pearls spread from
the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, the elements out of
which the wonderful Cypriote legends were compounded
travelled with them.

The earliest conception of a deity arose out of these
beliefs connected with the cowry. The first deities were
personifications of the female principle and power of re-
production. These ideas found expression in the most
primitive theologies of Egypt and Babylonia, and later in
those of Dravidian India and the Mediterranean. Hathor,
Istar, the village deities of Southern India, and Aphrodite
were probably sprung from a common ancestry.

Elsewhere I have discussed8 the events that created

7 See on this Schoffs " Commentary on the Periplus of the Erythraean
Sea," pp. 130-131.

8 "The Relationship of the Practice of Mummification to the Develop-
ment of Civilisation," to appear in the Bulletin of the John Kylaiids Library
and separately under the title "Incense and Libations" (Manchester
University Press).

Introduction. xvii

the intellectual atmosphere necessary for the serious
adoption of beliefs such as these, which, in spite of their
persistence in folklore, seem so puerile to us moderns.

It was the time when the serious attention of mankind
probably first became rivetted on the problems of the
nature of life and death. The realisation of the fact that
sometimes the bodies of the dead did not undergo a pro-
cess of dissolution when buried seems to have given
support to the vague longings for a continued existence
after death, with which no doubt imagination may often
have played before then, and set men thinking of the
elements of which death had robbed the once living body.
The outcome of these enquiries was the development of
ritual procedures which aimed at restoring to the corpse
the breath of life (by the ceremony of opening the mouth),
the waters of life (by the offering of libations), and the
odour and sweat of life (by the burning of incense). But
for us in this enquiry, the more important result was the
body of beliefs which grew up in association with these
ritual observances as the definite formulation of a coherent
system of primitive biological and psychological con-
ceptions.

The idea of the heart and the blood as the vehicles
of knowledge and the will was probably much older than
this, and already had probably prompted such ceremonial
procedures as the drawing of blood, whether by incision
or circumcision, by ear-piercing or by skin-gashing, many
centuries before the first real scientific attack upon the
problems of vitalism, to which I have been referring ; but
incidentally it helped to give more definite shape and
precision to these early conceptions of the vascular system.
So also the belief in the vitalising power of water was
definitely more ancient ; for it came to be vaguely recog-
nised as soon as the art of agriculture first was put into

xviii Introduction.

practice. But it also became drawn into the scheme ot
the new body of doctrine when the possibility of water
also vitalising the human body was admitted.

As a result of this new trend of thought, the belief
gradually took shape, for reasons which I have explained
in detail elsewhere,9 that a statue made in imitation of a
human being or an animal, or in fact any part of such a
living creature, or any article of food or furniture which
the deceased needed, could be animated by means of such
ritual observances as I have enumerated. These ideas
added definiteness to the further conception that any object
reproducing the form of a part of the body could magically
influence the structure which it mimicked.

At a time when such beliefs represented the ortho-
doxy of religion no less than the latest teaching of science,
for then the two were identical, some humble children of
nature who worshipped at this dual shrine were impressed
with the likeness to the female pudenda of cowry-shells,
picked up no doubt on the shores of the Red Sea ; and
with the analogy between the process by which the
mollusc extruded itself from its shell to the act of parturi-
tion. In strict accordance with the teaching of the time
this discovery naturally made the cowry an amulet for
insuring in women fertility and easy delivery in labour.
Thus these shells became appropriate offerings to be made
to girls on reaching maturity, or on the occasion of their
marriage. They were also worn to cure sterility and to
avert danger in parturition. These ideas spread until
they encircled the world.

But the idea of encouraging the bringing to life or
the conception of offspring became extended to include
the power of vitalising or animating a corpse. This is an

0 "The Relationship of the Practice of Mummification, etc.," op. cit.
supra.

In troductio n. x i x

integral part of the primitive train of reasoning I have
been trying to reconstruct and interpret. Hence it became
the custom in many places to put cowries in the grave
for the purpose of insuring to the dead a continuation of
existence. The fact that cowries, from their resemblance
to semi-closed eyelids, were often inserted into the orbits
of mummies to represent the eyes, may possibly have
played some part in giving definiteness to the ancient
conception of the fertilising power of the eyes, and to the
crop of beliefs concerning the evil eye and the power of
bringing good or bad luck, which are so intimately
associated not only with a glance of the eye but also with
cowry shells. These shells are commonly used for games
of chance, as well as for averting the evil eye.

The development of the beliefs concerning the fertilis-
ing and animating powers of the eye and the influence
of the evil eye is a very complex story, which has not yet
been fully analysed and elucidated. But it seems probable
that the potency of the cowry as a charm against the evil
eye is to be attributed in part to the belief in its fertilising
and vitalising powers and especially in its therapeutic
efficacy. For as the vehicle of " soul substance " it was
supposed to be able to remedy troubles due to the with-
drawal of this essential element of healthy vitality. But
due importance must be assigned to the fact that the
assimilation of the virtues assigned to the cowry and the
Egyptian eye-amulet respectively may in part be due to
the fact that the cowry was actually used as a substitute
for the eye.

But the use of cowries for bridal offerings and for
burial ceremonies led in some places to the offering of
very large collections of the shells, so as to increase the
beneficent influence expected of them. Among the
Baganda, for example, as many as two thousand five

xx In trodnctiOH .

hundred cowries were given as a bridal dowry. To meet
such exorbitant demands, especially in places where these
shells could not be obtained locally, but had to be im-
ported, the most valuable possessions of the people, cows,
sheep and goats, were given in exchange for cowries in
order to secure the social and magical advantages they
were believed to bring. This was, I believe, the origin of
the use of cowries as currency, and also incidentally how
sheep and cattle came to occupy so definite a significance
in early currencies. It may perhaps be suggestive of the
original magical value of cowries that, according to tradi-
tion, when these shells were first introduced among the
Baganda, two of them were given in exchange for a
woman. At a later period two thousand five hundred of
them were obtained in exchange for a cow to make the
dowry, offered to the bride.

As a further illustration from Baganda of the signifi-
cance attached to this shell as an animating force, cowries
were placed along with the deceased king's jaw and
umbilical cord.10 Cowries were also offered to twins ; and
if one of them died, a "double" was made for it, and
supplied with these vitalising shells. Not only in East
Africa, but also in many other places the cowry was thus
brought into intimate relationship with the peculiar beliefs
connected with "heavenly twins" and "doubles," with
the placenta and the soul.

It also played a part in a variety of blood-letting
ceremonies, such as circumcision and ear-piercing.

In my essay on " Ships as Evidence of the Migrations
of Early Culture "u I called attention to the fact that the
early Egyptians believed in the possibility of animating

1(1 In ancient times the operculum of the shell Titrbo was called
Umbilicus Veneris.

11 Manchester University Press, 1917, p. 29.

Introduction. xxi

their ships and converting them into living beings. They
painted representations of eyes upon the bows of their
ships so that, as living things, they might be able to see
their way. It is possible that the ship-builders of the
Arabian littoral, the Far East, and Oceania, may have
had in mind this double association (as an animating
power and as eyes) when the}- adopted the custom of
attaching cowries, or other shells, to the bows of their
ships.

Although Egypt has provided almost the earliest
evidence1- of the cultural use of the money-cowry, shells
never played any prominent part in the lower Nile Valley.
It is worthy of note, however, that the earliest gold
jewelry,13 included a necklace of gold models of snail-
shells.

So far as the evidence at present available justifies
the expression of an opinion, it seems probable that the
Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean constitute the
original home of the world-wide cult of shells. The former
probably supplied the cowries and pearls and the latter
the invention of the shell-trumpet and the purple dye.
But there are reasons for supposing that these varied uses
of shells were intimately related genetically the one with
the other. The sanctity of the trumpet was probably
derived in some measure from the beliefs that had grown
up around the cowry. The preparation of trumpets for
temple service may have played some part in the discovery
of the purple dye, for one of the purple shells is a bnccinuin.
The association of the shells which produce pearls and

1 - The earliest cases of the use of the cowry may be those found in
the graves at La Madelaine, Laugerie- Basse and Mentone. But I have
suggested that although these graves are usually called " palaeolithic '' they
may not be any older than Predynastic Egyptian graves. (See pp. 134-138).

i:i G. A. Reisner, " Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Der," Vol.
I., 1908, Plates 6 and 7.

xxii Introduction.

those used for trumpets, often in the same beds ; the fact
that some of the trumpet-shells yield pearl-like bodies
which are put to cultural uses ; and the transference to
pearls of some of the magical attributes of the cowry — all
of these considerations suggest the intimate genetic rela-
tions of all of these special appreciations of the value of
shells. Moreover the two areas were linked together at a
very remote historical period. At least as early as the
Third Dynasty Egyptian sailors were engaged in mari-
time trafficking both in the Red Sea and the Eastern
Mediterranean, and beliefs in the magical properties of
shells no doubt were constantly being exchanged between
the inhabitants of the shores of the two seas. Pliny men-
tions a legend of the relationship of the Minaeans and
Rhadamaeans of Southern Arabia to Minos of Crete and
his brother Rhadamanthus. When the intimate relations
between the shell-cults of the Red Sea and of Crete are
recalled one is inclined to attach some significance to
Pliny's story, even though he himself was sceptical of it.

Cyprus is intimately linked with the cult of the
cowry as well as with the working of copper — an associa-
tion to which I shall refer later.

Crete, so far as is known, was the original home of
the conch-shell trumpet and the manufacture of purple
dye. The Phoenicians, with whom these things are often
associated, were no more than the chief agents for dis-
tributing them abroad.

In studying the geographical distribution of the use
of conch-shell trumpets, of the purple dye and of a special
appreciation of pearls, one cannot fail to be struck with
their associations.

Mr. \V. J. Perry has called attention to the remarkable
identity of the14 geographical distribution of megalithic 1

14 Manchester Memoirs (Lit. and Phil. Soc.), November 24, 1915.

Introduction. xxiii

monuments on the one hand and the sites of ancient gold
and copper mines and pearl beds on the other — a fact
which is proving of supreme value and importance in the
interpretation of the early history of civilisation. He
made use of the Iberian Peninsula and India as demon-
strations of his argument. But it applies also to the
whole world, with the possible exception of Australia.
De Morgan has called attention to the remarkable co-
incidence of the sites of megalith ic monuments in the
Caucasus (and on the shores of the Black and Caspian
Seas) and those of old gold and copper mines.15 Baelz has
made a similar observation with reference to Japan and
Corea.1" Perry and I have found the same association
around the head-waters of the Yenesei and along two
lines leading from it respectively to the Iranian area and
along the Amur to the Pacific. The same remarkable
coincidences are found in the Philippines, in Celebes, and
in fact throughout Indonesia.

But the same people who settled in these isolated
spots to work the gold and copper, and incidentally to
erect megalithic tombs and temples, were also searching
for pearls and making use of shell-trumpets. When
Mr. Perry has published the results of his investigations
it will be seen that in the Indonesian area and New
Guinea the explanation of the remarkable fact that the
megalithic culture took root in some strips of coast and
not in others was due to the fact that pearls were to be
obtained only in those places where the evidence of these
western influences is found.

In Mexico, Central America and Peru, " Tyrian "
purple was used in the same localities as the shell-trumpet
and where there is evidence of a special appreciation of

15 "Les Premieres Civilizations,'' p. 404 ; also " Mission au Caucase,"
tome I.

115 Zeitsch.fiir Ethnologic, Bd. 42, 1910, p. 7/6.

XXIV

Introduction.

pearls. It is a remarkable fact that, according to Mrs.
Zelia Nuttall, the people who make use of purple in
Mexico are also famed for their gold-work, an association
which has probably survived for twenty centuries. In
Ireland also the king who is reputed to have first smelted
gold in that island is also said to have introduced the art
of making purple. Both in the Old and New Worlds
purple was not only made and used in the same way for
staining threads for weaving, but it was also employed
for colouring precious manuscripts and as a cosmetic. If
it be argued that purple was invented independently in
the New World it must be remembered that the method
of its production is a complex and difficult process, which
in itself is sufficient to raise a doubt as to the likelihood
of such a discovery being made more than once.

There are reasons for believing that all these special
uses of shells were spread abroad along with the complex
mixture of arts, customs and beliefs associated with the
building of megalithic monuments.

The earliest use of the conch-shell trumpet was in the
Minoan worship in Crete. Thence it spread far and wide,
until it came to play a part in religious services, Christian
and Jewish, Brahman and Buddhist, Shinto and Shaman-
istic, in widely different parts of the world — in the Medi-
terranean, in India, in Central Asia, in Indonesia and
Japan, in Oceania and America. In many of these places
it was supposed to have the definite ritual object of
summoning the deity. In the New Testament the sound
of the trumpet is the signal for the resurrection. Like
the cowry it was used in marriage and funeral ceremonies,
in connexion with harvest rites and circumcision, in the
ritual of initiation into secret societies, in the ceremonials
before sacred images, in the rites of drinking (such as
soma-worship and kava) and of head-hunting.

Introduction. xxv

It was also used in India as the receptacle for libations,
which, as I have already mentioned, was one of the essen-
tial ritual procedures for animating the dead, and in course
of time for performing the same devotional act for the
deity.

Thus it was intimately interwoven into the very
texture of the remarkable culture-complex of which these
practices represent a few of the ingredients

Mrs. Zelia Nuttall has published a remarkable scene
from an unpublished manuscript of Sahagun's. now at
Florence, representing the ancient Mexicans'act of homage
to the sun. ' Two priests offer blood by piercing their
ears, two others burn incense in a characteristically Egyp-
tian fashion, and another pair blow conch-shell trumpets.17
The use of the shell trumpet in a similar ceremonial for
sun-worship in Indonesia indicates one stage in the route
from Crete to America. One might multiply such illus-
trations almost without limit to demonstrate the reality
of the cultural bonds between these shell-elements and
the rest of the sun-cult both in the New World and in
the Old.

One of the most remarkable proofs of the derivation
of the civilisation of America from the Old World is
afforded by the representation in Maya and Aztec docu-
ments of unmistakably Indian religious scenes, often with
a Far Eastern tinge. The late Sir Edward Tylor called
attention to a clear example of such transference.18

Humboldt, Stolberg and Tschudi have cited others.19

17 «A Penitential Rite of the Ancient Mexicans," Archaeological and
Ethnological Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Vol. I,
No. 7, 1904.

18 "On the Diffusion of Mythical Beliefs as Evidence in the History
of Culture," Report British Association, 1894, p. 774«

13 See Bancroft "The Native Races of the Pacific States of North
America," Vol. V., p. 40 et set].

xxvi Introduction.

The exploits of the American " long-nosed god,"
(Chac of the Mayas ; Tlaloc of the Aztecs) as depicted in
the ancient codices, clearly reveal that this elephant-
headed deity is none other than Indra, the famous Vedic
deity of India, confused with Ganesa in the process of
transmission, and modified in certain respects by Cambo-
dian and Indonesian influences.20 In this book Mr. Jackson
has called attention to other equally definite examples of
late Hindu influence in America, in which certain of the
avatars of Vishnu reappear in America in unmistakable
form.

The episodes to which he has called 'attention are
complexly interwoven with the early mythology not only
of India but also of Babylonia and Egypt. For they are
part of the story of the creation and of the deluge, and
intimately related to the early history of the dragon and
of the Naga kings, whose palace of treasures was at the
bottom of the ocean. The genesis of this remarkable
story is closely connected not only with the use of the
conch-shell trumpet, but also with the search for pearls.
Something of the symbolism of the cowry is attached to
these " pearls that grant every desire."21

I have already referred to the custom, in various parts
of Africa and elsewhere, of placing cowries in the grave
or with the king's relics to secure the continued existence
of the dead. Sometimes the cowries were placed in the
mouth. The two-fold significance of the cowry — the
belief in its vitalising powers and its use as currency — led
to a confusion between these two properties, and was
responsible for the origin of a remarkable custom. The

20 "Pre-Columbian Representations of the Elephant in America,''
Nature, Dec. 16, 1915.

-1 Compare M. W. de Visser, " The Dragon in China and Japan,"
Amsterdam, 1913.

Introduction. xxvii

cowry was placed in the mouth because it was supposed
to be able to animate the dead : but when it came to
have a new value as currency this practice lost its original
significance and the use of the shell — or the actual metallic
coin that superseded it — for this purpose was rationalised j
into the belief that it represented Charon's fare for ferry-
ing the deceased to the other world.

In India, China and America the vitalising powers of
the cowry were transferred to the pearl, which with rice
(in America the so-called "native rice") was put into the
mouth of the dead to insure its continued welfare. The
rice had a significance analogous to that of the cowry or
pearl — it was endowed with " soul substance," which was
necessary to attain a future existence.

It was an early theory of pathology that all illnesses,
and even death itself, were due to the abstraction of
"soul substance" from the living. Thus pearls, as the
bearers of vitality, were quite logically the appropriate
panacea for almost every ailment. Hence pearls, and in
fact all of the shells discussed in this book, occupied a
very prominent place in early pharmacopoeias.

In his great treatise on "The Religious System of
China" (Vol. IV., Book II., p. 331) De Groot says:—
" Clear reasons for pearls being considered as depositories
and distributors of vital force we have found in no book,
nor have we received any by word of mouth from Chinese
acquaintances. Perhaps the matter must be put to the
account of nothing else than Koh H ting's inventive genius
... we must plead incompetency to solve this question."
According to the old Chinese writer Koh Hung, pearls
are rich in " soul-substance," in virtue of which they are
not only life-conferring, but also facilitate parturition, and
prevent the putrefaction of the dead body. The full
information given by De Groot of ancient Chinese ideas

xxviii Introduction.

concerning pearls proves quite conclusively that they share
all the virtues of cowries. This provides the answer to
the questions which the distinguished Dutch scholar con-
fessed his " incompetency to solve."

In attempting to form some conception of the mode
of the easterly spread of these cultural developments
which originated in the Eastern Mediterranean and the
Red Sea it is important to remember that it was the
pearl-fishers themselves who played the chief part in the
wanderings. The obtrusive role played in India by all
the elements of the cult of shells ; the conception of the
Naga kings' home at the bottom of the sea ; the stories
of dragons guarding the treasure houses rich in gold,
pearls and precious stones ; the pearls which are found
under the dragon's tongue, or in the heads of serpents and
elephants ; and the sanctity of shell trumpets, their use
in religious ceremonial, and the reverence for and adora-
tion of them as the attribute of some deity (Vishnu ; and
in the Mediterranean, Triton, Neptune and Venus) or
even as its dwelling or its parent — all these facts are so
many testimonies of the intimacy of the connexions
which have linked these beliefs concerning shells with the
deepest emotions and the most earnest strivings of the
human spirit for assurance and consolation.

G. ELLIOT SMITH.

CHAPTER I.

The Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple
Industry.

Among the many curious and ornamental uses to
which shell-fish have been applied, one of the most striking
and interesting is undoubtedly their employment for the
production of the famous dye known as " Tyrian purple."

Much has been written concerning this dye and the
subject has been discussed in its economical and philo-
sophical aspects by numerous writers.

By far the best and most comprehensive summary of
the various contributions to our knowledge of the subject
is the article on Purpura by Maurice Besnier, in Daremberg
and Saglio's " Dictionnaire des Antiquites." l The biblio-
graphy quoted by this author is astonishing and serves to
show how extensively the subject has been treated by
writers of different nationalities.

But Besnier, and the authors he quotes, deal only with
the classical area of the Mediterranean. The aim of the
present chapter is to trace out, as far as it is possible to
do so, the geographical distribution of this interesting
industry ; not only in the Old, but also in the New World.

Many data relating to the use of this shell-purple are
to be found in the historical records, but in some cases its
former presence in a particular area can only be inferred
from the finding of broken and crushed shells, which serve
equally definitely to distinguish certain ancient stations for
the extraction of the purple.

From the works of ancient writers, especially Aristotle

1 Vol. IV. — i., Paris.

Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry, 3

and Pliny, we learn that this famous colouring matter was
in great demand among the people of the Mediterranean
region. It was this purple dye, in fact, which was largely
responsible for giving to the textile fabrics of the
Phoenicians their world-wide reputation.

Both Aristotle and Pliny give the details of the process
by which it was procured from the shell-fish. They tell us
that the precious liquid was obtained from a transparent
branching^ vessel behind the neck of the animal and that
at first the material was of the colour and consistency of
thick cream. When the shells were small, many of them
were bruised together in a mortar ; but when large, the
animal was taken out entire, usually by breaking a hole in
the side of the shell, and the sac containing the colour-
ing matter was taken out, either while the animal was still
alive, or as soon as possible after death, as otherwise the
quality of the dye was impaired. This was mixed with a
quantity of salt, about 20 ozs. to every 100 pounds of juice,
to keep it from putrefying. Three days, and no more, were
allowed for the steeping process, and the liquid was then
set to boil in vessels of tin or lead. The vessel was placed
at the end of a long funnel, which communicated with the
furnace, and while boiling the liquid was frequently
skimmed to remove impurities. The proportions were
about 500 pounds of material to every hundred amphorae
of water. About the tenth day, as a rule, the whole con-
tents of the cauldron were in a liquified condition, and a
fleece, freed from all grease, was then plunged in by way
of a trial ; but until such time as the colour was found to
be satisfactory, the liquid was still kept on the boil. The
wool was left to soak for five hours, and then after being
carded, was thrown in again, until it had fully imbibed
the colour.2

2 Pliny, "Nat. Hist.," ix., ch. 62.

4 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

A very curious fact concerning this dye, which was
noted also to some extent by the ancients, is the trans-
formation through which it passes on exposure to
sunlight. The fluid is at first colourless, but on exposure
to the action of the sun it becomes of a bright yellow,
speedily turns to a pale green, and continues to change
imperceptibly until it assumes a bluish cast and then a
purple red. These changes of colour, which are faster or
slower according to the intensity of the sun's light, are
accompanied by the production of a disagreeable foetid
odour, similar to that of essence of garlic.

This peculiarity was well known to the ancients and
is referred to by Pliny. It was probably the cause of the
extravagant use of perfumes by the wearers of " the
purple " in classical times.

THE SOURCES OF THE PURPLE.

The vague descriptions of the Greek and Latin writers
has led to much discussion as to the exact species of
shell-fish used in the manufacture of the dye.

Pliny speaks of two kinds that produce the purple
colour. The smaller "fish," he tells us, was called the
" buccinum," from its resemblance to the conch by which
the sound of the buccinus or trumpet is produced ; the
other " fish " was known as the " purpura," or purple, and
was studded with points up to the very apex, differing in
this respect from the first kind.

The earliest attempt to discover the source of the
ancient purple seems to have been made by William Cole,
of Bristol, in i686,3 who conducted experiments on shell-
fish (Purpura lapillus} found on the shores of Somerset-

•• Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.. I.ond., xv., pp. 278 — 86. and plate.

Geographical Distribution of tJie Shell-Purple Industry. 5

shire, South Wales, and Ireland, in the course of which he
discovered the curious photogenetic properties of the
colour. These experiments were continued by other
observers, including Reaumur,4 du Hamel,3 Deshayes/ and
Lacaze-Duthiers.7 The general concensus of opinion on
the question is that the f purpura' of Pliny is the Murex
trunculus, or the M. branderis, of modern conchologists,
while the ' buccinum ' of the Roman naturalist is probably
the Purpura hcemastoina, all three species being common
to the Mediterranean shores. The Pnrpura lapillns^ so
abundant on the shores of Europe generally, is also likely
to have been employed in the production of the inferior
sort of purple.

The J///r^t'-shell is almost constantly in evidence as
a design upon Tyrian coins from A.D. 112 onwards. The
shell here is quite distinct from the so-called " Murex" of
pre- Alexandrine coins (circa 450-400 B.C.). The latter is
not a Murex at all, but is more like a Triton, or trumpet-
shell ; and the same shell appears on the coins of Byblus
(c. 350 u.c.) and of Tarentum (c. 400-330 B.C.). The
Murex of the imperial coins of Tyre (A.D. 112 on) is
distinctly like Murex branderis, one of the chief purple-
yielding shells.

Whether the design of the Murex (and so-called
Murex) on these coins had primarily any connection with
the purple-trade of Tyre is doubtful, though this has been
suggested by leading authorities.

4 Mem de F Acad. tics Sciences, 1711, pp. 168-199 (Reaumur also
accidentally discovered that the egg-capsules of Purpura afforded the dye
in greater abundance, and with less trouble, than the animal itself).

•"' Ibid. 1736, pp. 49-68.

" " Mollusques de la Mediterranee," in " L' Exped. Scient. de Moree,
Section des Sciences physiques," iii., Paris, 1832, pp. 189-192.

1 Proc. A' or. .S'<?(-. Loud., x., 1860, pp. 579-584; also Ann. des Sci.
A'at. Zoo!., \ii., 1859, pp. 5-84, and plate.

6 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

Judging from the associated symbols, particularly
those of the serpent, palm-tree, " mundane egg," etc., it
seems to have a greater affinity with serpent and phallic
worship.

At least two species of Murex, and one of Purpura,
appear to have been employed by the Phoenicians in the
manufacture of Tyrian purple. Lortet records that in the
vicinity of Sidon, great banks, a hundred yards long and
several yards thick, occur composed entirely of broken
shells of Mure.v trunculns* while at Tyre, according to
Tristram," large quantities of crushed and broken shells of
Mure.v branderis, have been met with. Tyre, which is
reputed to have produced the best purple in Asia, is
referred to by Strabo "' as unpleasant, as a place of
residence, owing to the great number of its dyeworks.

The Tyrian method of dyeing differed slightly from
that narrated by Pliny, for the dyers merely made a bath
of the liquid in which the wool to be treated was steeped
for a certain time. It was then taken out and thrown
into another boiler, which contained an extract from the
Ruccinnui, or Trumpet-fish, only. This process — the
so-called "purpurea dibapha" — gave to the stuffs a richer
and more vivid hue. Wool submitted to this double
process was so highly esteemed that, in the reign of
Augustus, each pound sold for one thousand Roman
denarii, or about thirty-six pounds sterling. We need
not wonder at this enormous price, considering the tedious
nature of the process and the small amount of dye pro-
duced from each shell-fish. For fifty pounds of wool, the
ancients used no less than two hundred pounds of the

v L. Lortet, " La Syrie d'aujourd'hui,'' Paris, 1883, p. 102.

9 II. U. Tristram, " The Land of Israel," 1882, p. 48. See also Besnu-r,
<?/. ,-//.. p. 770, for other references, and the use of Purfinra h,<masto»ia.

1 * Strabo. xvi., c. II, p. 756.

Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry. 7

liquid of the Buccininn and one hundred pounds of that
of the Purpiira^

The best purple was stated by the ancients to be
exceedingly durable ; and when Alexander took posses-
sion of Susa, he found among the treasures of Darius, 5,000
talents in weight of purple cloth, from Hermione in the
Peloponnesus, which had been laid up there for 180 years,
and yet retained all its freshness and brilliance of colour.1-

The purple-bordered prretextae of Servius Tullius,
with which the statue of Fortune dedicated by him, was
covered, lasted until the death of Sejanus ; and it is a
remarkable fact, that, during a period of 560 years, they
had never changed colour.™

The real Tyrian purple and purple-stuffs were essen-
tially articles of luxury, varying in price according to
times and quality.

They were always costly and vied in value even with
gold itself. Consequently we find them reserved for the
hangings of temples, or employed for the robes of priests
and kings. Moses, it is recorded, used purple stuffs for
the works of the tabernacle, as well as for the habits of
the high priest; and among the presents which the
Israelites made to Gideon the Scriptures mention purple
raiment that belonged to the kings of Midian.14 The
Babylonians are said to have devoted this purple to the
dress of their idols, and Tertullian speaks of its use among
the ancient kings of Egypt and Babylonia.15 It was con-
sidered a noble and sacred colour by the ancients and
emblematic of the power of the gods, an idea which is
explained by Besnier by the resemblance of the purple to

1 ' Mary Roberts, "A Popular History of the Mollusca," 1851, p. I2O.

1 a Plutarch, Alex., p. 36.

1 n Pliny, " N. H./' viii., ch. 74.

14 "Judges,'' 8, 26.

1 •'• Tertull, DC idol, p. iS.

8 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

the colour of blood, the principle of life.16 The true reason
for the belief in its vital power is suggested in the Intro-
duction to this volume.

The mere price of the purple made the use of it a
privilege of kings and priests.

By the Greeks and Romans purple was regarded as
the peculiar insignia of royalty or of official distinction,
such as magistrates, military officials, priests, etc. It also
played an important role in certain of their legends.

Its use was forbidden to the common people, and laws
were made inflicting severe penalties, and even death itself,
upon all under the dignity of an emperor who should
presume to wear it.

Though the Tyrian purple served principally as a dye
for cloth, generally of wool, but sometimes of silk, it was
also employed as a paint for the parchments of precious
books written in letters of gold, and as a colour for inks.17
It had a prominent place also among the toilet requisites
of the Romans and was applied in place of rouge to the
cheeks and lips.18

Attention might also be called here to the use of the
purple on the sails of vessels in the earliest times. These
sails were of rich colours, with floral and other designs,
and were in early use in Egypt, and seem to have been
bought by the Tyrians.19 The hem or border of these sails
was coloured according to the rank or station of the owner.
It is mentioned by Atticus that the sails of the large ship
of Ptolemy Philopater were of fine linen, ornamented with
a purple border. And we find the ship of Antony and

16 Besnier, op. cit., p. 777.

1 • Ibid. p. 778.

ls Athenoeus, xiii., ch. 8, p. 604. See also Besnier, op. cit., p. 778, for
other references.

19 Ezekiel, 27, 7 . . . ** Fine linen, with embroidered work from Egypt,
was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sails."

Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry. 9

Cleopatra at the battle of Actium, distinguished from the
rest of the fleet by having purple sails — a distinction which
is said to have been at that time the peculiar privilege of
the admiral's vessel."0

THE CENTRES OF PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION
OF THE PURPLE INDUSTRY.

The Phoenicians have been accredited with the inven-
tion of this famous purple as well as with that of glass, but
modern investigators are depriving these ' maritime pedlars'
of much of their former prestige. Glass has been shown
to have been first made by the Karly Egyptians many
centuries before the probable date of the Phoenician occu-
pation of the Mediterranean coast, and the credit of the
invention of shell-purple has now been transferred to the
Minoans of Crete. R. C. Bosanquet, in his note on " An
Karly Purple-fishery"-1 tells us that " Leuke, the ' White
Isle' (modern Kouphonisi), off the south-east coast of
Crete, was an important fishing-station in antiquity. The
tithes levied on the catch of fish and of purple-shell men-
tioned in an inscription of about 350 B.C., must have
been very profitable, for the possession of the island was
the subject of a long and bitter dispute among three neigh-
bouring cities."

This island was explored in 1903 by C. T. Currelly
and R. C. Bosanquet, and " among sand-hills on the north
shore they found a bank of shells, some whole but mostly
crushed, of Murex trunculus, which is known to have been
used in the manufacture of the purple dye."

4< Scattered through the heap were fragments of
pottery, and of a stratile bowl which marked it as not
only prae-Hellenic but prae- Phoenician. Further digging

"° J. Napier, '• Manufacturing Arts in Ancient Times,'' 1874, pp. 287-^8.
'-' ' ttr it. Ass. Kept., 1903, p. 817.

io SJiells as evidence of the Migrations.

within a few yards of the heap brought to light character-
istic Cretan vases of the Kamares type, and the foundations
of a house."

" The evidence shows that the extraction of the purple-
juice was practised in Crete at least as early as 1600 B.C."2"2

Though the Phoenicians were not the original dis-
coverers of the famous dye, they were largely instrumental
in spreading the knowledge of the art among the people
with whom they traded. Their two great centres of manu-
facture were Sidon and Tyre and the large quantities of
broken shells around these cities testify to the importance
and extent of the industry.

The purple of Tyre was greatly estimated and con-
sidered the best in Asia.--0' The dyeworks of this city
endured for many centuries until the end of the Roman
Empire. The imperial manufacture of purple at Tyre is
mentioned in the reign of Diocletian before 300 A.D.,-4
and in 383 A.D. the fabrication of purple of superior quality
became a state monopoly."'

Among other towns of Phoenicia cited as manufactories
of purple stuffs are Sarepta, Caesarea, Neapolis, Lydda,
and the port of Doros.-(i The inhabitants of the island of
Cyprus also carried on this industry. The Phoenicians
likewise introduced the knowledge into Egypt and a
private manufactory is said to have existed in the town of
This, near Abyclos, in the 7th cent. A.D. But it is not
clear how the purple could have been made so far from
the sea.

-- Bosanquet, <?/>. cil.

-'•'• Pliny, "N.II.?> ix., ch. 60.

-4 Desnier, quoting Euseb, Hist. Eic/t-s.. vii., p. 32.
"' Ibid, quoting Cod. ///>/., i\. , 40, p. l.

-'' Besnier, <?/>. <-//., p. 774. Being unable to obtain ucces* to many
of the works quoted by Kesnier. I give tbese and other references on his
authori.lv.

Geographical Distribution of the Shell- Purple Industry. \ I

The search for the purple-bearing shell-fish seems to
have been one of the motives which lead the Phoenicians
to explore areas further afield than their own immediate
shores. The ^Egean and the shores of Asia Minor were
visited by these ancient mariners, and important fisheries
were established at several places both here and elsewhere
around the Mediterranean.

Many of their stations are made known to us by
ancient writers, but the evidence of the existence of
others rests upon the discoveries of heaps of broken
shells.

In Asia Minor fisheries for purple-shells are cited by
Aristotle27 on the coasts of Caria, and the Edict of
Diocletian mentions the purple cloths of Miletus.-8 There
were purple dyeworks also at Phoc.ta in Lydia,29 and at
Hierapolis in Phrygia.30 In Troas shells were fished at
Lectum and at Sigeum,31 and one of the islands of the
Propontis (Sea of Marmora) was known as Porphyrione. 2
Vitruvius mentions the purple of Pontus.™ In the /Egean
Sea the islands noted for purple were Rhodes,34 Nisyros
(formerly Porphyris),"5 Coos, Amorgos and Chios. <G
According to Herodotus, Itanus, at the eastern extremity

7 Aristotle, Hist. An., v., 15, 3. In the time of Homer the women
of Caria trafficked in purple (//. iv., 141).
5S Edict. DiocL, 24, 6 & 7.

-'•' Ovid, Met., vi., 9. Thyatira in Lydia was celebrated for lits purple-
dyeing (if. Homer, //. iv., 141) ; at Philippi a seller of purple from Thyatira
was converted by St. Paul (Acts, 16, 14).
;;o if. Besnier, op> ci't., p. 775,

1 Aristotle, op. cit.
"y Pliny, ''N. II.,'' v .. cii. 44.
:1" Vitruvius, vii., 13.
34 Ibid.
" Pliny, '• X. 11.," v., ch. 36.

'' <•/. Besnier. op. cit.. p. 775- (At Coos, cloths were probably dyed
\\ith Kermes-coccus).

1 2 Shells (is evidence of the Migrations.

of Crete, was afso an ancient Phoenician station and
probably a factory for the purple trade.37

In Thessalia purple was manufactured at Meliboea,
and a purple-establishment existed at Thessalonica in
Macedonia:*8

In Greece proper the two most important centres of
the industry were the coast of Laconia and the Gulf of
Corinth. The purple of Laconia was considered the best
in Europe:'9 Large heaps of Murex branderis are reported
by Tristram on this coast40 From the island of Cythera
the Phoenicians despatched to the east and the west the
celebrated " Laconian purples."4 On the north shore of
the Gulf of Corinth, in Phocis, the purple-shells were so
abundant that half the population of Bulis was occupied
solely in their capture.4"

Among other Grecian places famous for the purple
industry, may be mentioned the coast of Argolis, with the
port of Hermione, where the purple stuffs of Darius were
prepared ;** the east coast of Eubaea ; Eretria and Styra
in the same island ; and Anthedon in Hoeotia.44

In the western Mediterranean, Tarentum, the modern
Otranto, was a most important station for purple from an
early date. Hardouin tells us that in his time there were
still to be seen the remains of ancient dyeing-houses, and
that vast heaps of the shells of Murex had been discovered
there.45 Aufrere, in 1/89, describes a hill called Monte

'•*' Herod, iv., p. 151.

** <f. Besnier, op. cit., p. 775.

a" Pliny, " X. H.," ix., ch. 60.

40 H. B. Tristram, op. <//., p. 48 footnote.

41 cf. Besnier, op. <•//., p. 775.

42 Jbid.

43 Plutarch, Alex., 36.

44 cf. Besnier, op. cit., p. 775.

45 if. footnote in Bostock & Riley's " Pliny, M. H." (vol. ii., p. 447).

Geographical Distribution of tJie Shell-Purple Industry, 1 3

Testaceo, behind the Alcantarine Convent at Tarento,
consisting chiefly of the shells of Miirex branderis.^

The purple of the Adriatic port of Ancona is cited by
Silius Italicus. Dalmatia, I stria, Venetia and Sicily, Baia:
and Aquinum on the west coast of Italy, were also centres
of the industry in Roman times.47 Fischer, in his " Manuel
de Conchyliologie," 4S refers to the discovery at Pompeii of
heaps of Purpura in the neighbourhood of many dyeworks.

Liguria provides us with interesting evidence of an
early search for purple. In two caves in this region, the
cave of Pollera and Caverna delle Arene Candide, both
said to be of Neolithic age, Don Morelli found the broken
shells of Purpura hceuiastoma. Mosso,49 in referring to
these discoveries, overlooks their true significance, and
states that this mollusc has never been found in Italy, but
is very common along the West African shore. On this
account he suggests that the cave shells represent objects
brought by early mariners returning from Africa as votive
offerings for escape from the dangers of the sea. Regard-
ing the distribution of the species in question, Mosso is
somewhat at fault ; it is very widely distributed in the
Mediterranean, occurring on the coasts of Provence,
Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and elsewhere. There is no
reason, therefore, to assume that the cave shells came from
any great distance. That they had been collected locally
for the extraction of the purple dye seems evident from
their broken condition, and in this connection it is of
interest also to note that in the same caves Triton shells
were found which had ever)- appearance of having been

4C Lovell, "Edible British Molusca," 1884, p. 205, quoting Aufrere's
" Travels."

47 (f. Besnier, op. ci/., p. 775.

4* 1887, p. 14.

49 Mosso, " Dawn of Mediterranean Civilisation,'' 1910, p. 269.

14 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

used as trumpets.50 The importance of this fact cannot be
overlooked when one considers the intimate relationship
in Crete, and other places, between the use of shell-purple
for dyeing and the employment of conch-shells for
trumpets. A further point is worthy of mention here, and
that is the discovery of a pearl-shell (Meleagrma
margaritifera), a native of Eastern Seas, on hut found-
ations near Reggio Emilia, N. Italy.51 The coincidence
of the occurrence of all three objects — shell-purple, conch-
shell trumpets, and pearl-shell — in North Italy, is most
remarkable, and seems to indicate definite contact with
the advanced cultures of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Regarding the geographical distribution of the purple
industry further west, we find that Vitruvius makes allu-
sion to the purple of Gaul,5- while Strabo refers to that of
southern Spain, (Turdetania, near Carteia),53 and to the
introduction of purple to the Balearic Islands by the
Phoenicians.54 In these islands Purpura hcernastoma is
still used by the fishermen of Minorca to mark their
linen ; Murex truncuhis is also known to them as yielding
a fixed and permanent colour.55

With regard to the purple of Spain, Duckworth, in his
" Cave Explorations at Gibraltar,"56 mentions the discovery
of specimens of Purpura h&niastoma with the apical
portion fractured in a curious manner, and suggests, on

60 Mosso, op. tit., p. 363, quoting Morelli, " Resti organici rinvenuti
nella Caverna delle Arene Candida," Geneva, 1901, p. in.

61 Mosso, op. «'/., p. 269, quoting Colini, Atti della Societh romana
d1 Anlropologia, x., 1904.

52 Vitruvius, vii., p. 13.

63 Strabo, iii., 145. Carteia lay east of Gades (Cadiz) and was a
colony planted by the Tyrians about B.C. 1130, cf. Rawlinson, " History of
Phrenicia," 1889, p. 419.

r>4 Strabo, iii., 167, cf. Besnier, op. cif,, p. 775.

55 Lacaze-Duthiers, Proc. Roy. Soc., x., 1860, p. 583.

5S Journ. Roy. Anthrop. lust., xli., 1911, p. 363, and pi. xl. fig. 3.

Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry. 1 5

the authority of the Rev. A. H. Cooke, that the mollusc
was used for the preparation of its distinctive product,
the " Tyrian Purple."

In Africa, the island of Meninx (now Jerba) in the
Gulf of Cabes, was famed for its purple, as well as parts
of Gsetulia that border on the ocean.57 The port of Zuchis,
on the mainland, close to Meninx, also contained factories
for purple dyeing.5" Juba II., King of Mauritania, is said
to have established a manufactory of this dye, known as
" Gaetulian Purple " in the Purpurariae, or " Purple Islands "
(probably the Madeira group).59

In the British Isles the art of purple dyeing from shell-
fish seems to have been known from very early times.
That it dates from pre-historic times in.. Ireland seems
evident from the discoveries made in 1895 by R. Standen
and his co-workers of " Purpura-mounds " associated with
" Kitchen-middens " of Patella vulgata, Littorina littorea,
etc., at Portnafeadog (or Dogs Bay), Connemara, West of
Ireland.

In his paper on the subject60 the author states that
the shells of Purpura lapillus in the " Purpura-mounds "
had all been broken in a peculiar manner. In each case
the apical whorls were smashed, leaving the lower whorl
with mouth intact, and in some cases portions of the
second and third whorls remaining along with the
columella. The broken Purpura shells were present in
enormous quantities and one large heap measured 55
yards in length, 15 yards across the broad end, and 3
yards across the narrow end. Two hundred specimens
were picked up from one square foot.

Heaps of the shells of the same species in a broken

57 Pliny, "N.H.,"ix., ch. 60.

08 Strabo, xvii., 835.

59 Pliny, "N.H.," vi., ch. 36.

00 Journal of Conchology , viii., 1896, p. 187.

1 6 Shells as evidence of the Migrations,

condition and associated with other edible kinds, bones
of animals, stone implements, and flint flakes, have since
been noticed by several observers round the Donegal coast
in sites similar to those at Dogs Bay.

Regarding the Dogs Bay discovery, F. J. Bigger, one
of the 1895 party, writes:01 " Shells of this species, either
whole or broken, had seldom been observed among other
remains in sandhills, and certainly never in any quantity ;
but here there was a large heap, all broken, which seemed
to have the same connection with the sites as the shells of
the other species."

Enquires were made in the neighbourhood as to
whether the Purpura was now used for any purpose, but
not even the oldest inhabitant could recollect hearing of
its being used as food, or bait, or in any way whatever.

Large quantities of broken shells of Piirpura lapillus,
together with rounded pebbles of quartz, large enough
to break them, have also been found by the Rev. R.
Ashington Bullen in " Kitchen-middens," close to the
Late-Celtic cemetery, at Harjyn Bay, North Cornwall. (>-

These discoveries of broken Purpura shells in the
British Isles have led to much discussion as to the possi-
bility of their use as food like the other associated species.
This question, however, has been ably dealt with by
Standen and Bigger, who point out the unsuitability of
this species either for food or bait, whereas the associated
species, Patella and Littoriua, may be used for either
purpose. They suggest, therefore, that the Purpura shells
may have been broken in order to extract the animal for
the rich purple it affords. A similar suggestion is put
forward by the Rev. R. Ashington Bullen.68

'•' Prot\ Roy. Irish Academy, 3rd Ser., v., 1899, p. 437.
'•- rroc. Malac, Soc., v., 1902, p. 185, and Trans. S. Eastern Union
of Sd. Soc., 1903.
'•••• Jbid.

Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry. 17

Apart from the evidence afforded by the Mediter-
ranean instances of broken shells, this interpretation
receives strong support from the interesting statement
made by Lenormant and Chevallier in dealing with the
purple industry of the ancients. According to these
authors the Phcenicians " also procured from the British
Isles a dark shade, called 'black purple,' but it has not
yet been ascertained with certainty what species produced
it."04

Further evidence of the antiquity of purple in Ireland
is furnished by Wood-Martin in his " Lake Dwellings of
Ireland."'" On p. 104 of this work the author tells us
that the MS. Book of Ballymote contains an ancient
Irish poem, which states : " It was Tigearnmas who first
established in Ireland the art of dyeing cloth^of^urgle,
and many colours."

This King — variously given as Tighernmas and
Tiernmas — is alleged to have reigned about 1000 B.C.,
and "was the first that smelted gold in Ireland."6

We have many instances of the survival of this purple
industry in the British Isles. Johnston07 tells us that the
Venerable Bede, who wrote in the eighth century, men-
tions the art as known in his time, and he was familiar
with the beauty and permanency of the colour.68 The
same fact is mentioned by Richard of Cirencester,69 and
also in a translation of Higden's " Polichronicon " made
in the year I387.7"

Purple shell-fish were largely employed from the i6th

** " Manual of Ancient History of the East," London, 1870, ii., p. 214.

«5 Dublin and London, 1886.

6C Rinahan, "Geology of Ireland,'" 1878, p. 340.

67 Johnston, "Introduction to Conchology," 1850, p. 72.

cv " Hist. Eccles. Gent. Ang.," lib. i., c. 1.

" "Desc. of Britain," 28.

70 Book i., cli. 38 of "Bretayn."

1 8 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

to 1 8th centuries for marking linen in Somersetshire,
Cornwall and other parts of England, as well as in Scot-
land, France, Norway and other parts of Europe.71

Purple robes were in frequent use in Ireland during
ancient times. In the tale of Eithne and King Cormac,
quoted by Whitley Stokes in his introduction to the Irish
" Tripartite Life of St. Patrick," i., p. xxxviii., fifty maidens
in purple mantles are mentioned. In the " Book of
Rights," p. 65, cloaks trimmed with purple are noticed ;
at p. 87, the King of Ara is said to be entitled to six
purple mantles from the King of Erie; at p. 147, the
stipend of the King of Ui Breasail includes three purple
cloaks. We are told that Medb presented Ferdiad with
a girsat cocra or purple waist scarf to induce him to fight
Cuchulaind.72

Apart from its use in the dyeing of fabrics, we find,
in Miss Roberts' work,73 some interesting particulars as to
the employment of Tyrian purple, in Britain and else-
where, in doping parchments, or vellum. This was done
for the purpose of rendering still more splendid the
manuscripts, which were adorned with gold and silver
letters. This magnificent and expensive style of writing
on purple vellum was appropriated to Biblical manu-
scripts, and the libraries of princes. As examples of this
class of work we have the book of the Gospels, which
Louis the Pious gave to the monastery of St. Medard, at
Soissons, now in the royal library of France, and the
Book of Prayers, bound in ivory, and studded with gems,
formerly belonging to Charles the Bald, but now in the
celebrated Colbertine Library.

Similar manuscripts were also occasionally made in

71 See papers by Cole, Reaumur, du Hamel, Deshayes, and Lacaze-
Duthiers, 1. c.

72 F. J. Bigger, Proc. Roy. Irish Acdd.t 3rd ser., iii., 1896, p. 730.

73 Roberts, op. cit., pp. 123-4.

Geographical Distribution of tJie SJiell-Purple Industry. 19

England. The famous Wilfred ordered a copy of the
four Gospels to be written for the church of Ripon, in
letters of the purest gold, upon leaves of parchment,
purpled in the ground, and variously coloured on the
surface.

The Gregorian Bible, presented by a monkish mis-
sionary and his companions to the first Christian church
erected at Canterbury, was also of a similar description.

Eastward of the Mediterranean we find several indi-
cations and curious survivals of this ancient purple
industry.

According to Johnston,74 the Chinese make use of a
similar dye. The extreme conservatism of Chinese tastes
suggests that the art is no recent importation amongst
them. Bancroft75 also gives an interesting quotation
regarding the use of shell-purple by the Chinese settlers
in the Malay region. He tells us that u Mr. John Nicuhoff
relates that ' abundance of purple snails are found in the
islands over against Batavia. They are boiled and eaten
by the Chinese, who have a way of polishing the shells,
and prick out of the middle of the snail a certain purple-
coloured substance which they use in colouring and
making red ink.' "

That the purple was appreciated and sought for by
the ancient inhabitants of Japan is implied from the
discovery of certain broken shells in their " Kitchen-
middens." Professor Edward S. Morse, in his paper on
" Shell Mounds of Omori,"76 tells us that along with such
species as Fusus inconstans, Hemifusus tuba, Eburna
japonica, etc., the shells of Rapana bezoar were exceedingly
abundant in the mounds and of large size with massive

74 Johnston, op. cit., p. 74.

75 Bancroft, " Philosophy of Permanent Colours," i., 1794, pp. 93 — 4.

76 Memoirs of the Science Dept.) Univ. of Tokio^ Japan, vol. i., pt. i.,
No. 2539, 1879.

2O Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

shell. Many of the specimens of this species had a
portion of the body whorl broken away " as if for the
purpose of more conveniently extracting the animal."
The same species is recorded from the Okadaira Shell
Mound at Hitachi by J. Jijima and C. Sasaki,77 who also
call attention to the fact of the specimens having almost
always an irregular opening in their body whorl as if
made for facilitating the extraction of the animal.

Why the shells of this particular species should be
broken and not the others is remarkable. The idea that
such a procedure was solely to facilitate the extraction of
the animal for food purposes does not appear to be con-
clusive. A far greater significance is attached to such an
occurrence when one considers that Rapana bezoar belongs
to the purple-bearing family, Muricidce, and is closely
allied to Purpura. It is not improbable, therefore, that
the object in breaking the shells was to obtain purple for
dyeing purposes. That these ancient people were not
wholly ignorant of textiles is evidenced by the occurrence
of spindle-whorls associated with the pottery and shells
of the mounds.

In the New World we have ample evidence of the
practice of this ancient industry at several places in Cen-
tral America, especially in the I7th and i8th centuries.
Here the species employed is Purpura patula, which is
plentiful in the West Indies, and on rocks between high
and low tide levels on both the Atlantic and Pacific
coasts of Central America. It resembles the Purpura
Jnanastoina of the Mediterranean, one of the species used
by the ancient Tyrian dyers, and which, as previously
mentioned, is still used by the Minorcan fishermen to
mark their linen.78

77 Ibid., Appendix : No. 2542, 1882.

7 * See Lacaze-Duthiers, "Nat. Hist, of Purple of Ancients,'' Prec. I\oy.
Sec. London, \ , 1860, p. 583.

Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry. 2 1

D'Argenville, in his " Conchyliologie (1742, p. 181),
states that the " Conque Persique " is made use of both in
Panama and Guatemala for dyeing purposes and, on that
account, is called " Poupre de Panama." The " Conque
Persique " (Purpura persicd] inhabits the Indian Ocean,
and was distinguished from the Purpura patuia of the
Pacific coast by Brugiere in 1789 and Lamarck in 1803.

In 1744, Don Antonio de Ulloa saw at S. Elena, in
what is now Ecuador, and also at Nicoya (Costa Rica),
purple colour produced from sea-shells. He describes the
process in his " Physical and Historical Account of
Southern and North-Eastern America " as follows : " On
the coasts belonging to the province of Guayaquil the
finest purple is found. The animals from which it is
derived are contained in shells, about the size of walnuts,
and live on rocks washed by the sea. They contain a
juice or humour, which is taken out, and yields the true

purple Cotton, thread, and other delicate materials

are dyed with it. It gives a lively and durable colour,
which does not lose its lustre by frequent washings, but
is rather improved thereby, and does not fade through
long-continued use and exposure. Near the port of
Nicoya in the province of Guatemala the same kind of

shell-fish is found, and is used for dyeing cotton

Various processes are employed for extracting the juice
or humour. Some kill the animal. They take it out of
its shell, and, having laid it on the back of the hand, press
and squeeze it with a knife from the head to the tail, and
then separate the expressed juice, the rest of the animal
matter being thrown away. They treat in this way a
number of animals until they have a sufficient quantity
of juice. They then draw through the thread which they

wish to dye, and no more is required Others

express the juice without killing the animal. They do

22 SJiells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

not take it entirely out of the shell, but only press it so as
to cause a certain quantity to be ejected, with which the
threads are dyed. The shells are then laid again on the
stones from which they were taken. They recover, and
after some time give a fresh quantity of juice, but not so
much as the first time." 7!l

Thomas Gage,80 an earlier observer, gives an account
as follows : " About Chira, Golfo de Salinas, and Nicoya,
there are some farms of Spaniards, few and very small
Indian Townes, who are all like slaves employed by the
Alcalde Maior, to make him a kind of three! called Pita
[agave fibre], which is a very rich commodity in Spain,
especially of that colour wherewith it is dyed in these
parts of Nicoya, which is a purple colour ; for the which
the Indians are here much charged to work about the
Sea shore, and there to finde out certain shels wherewith
they make this purple dye."

Of the process of purple dyeing as practised in more
recent times by the natives of Nicaragua, Squier81 gives us
the following account : " Some of the cotton fabrics manu-
factured by the Indians are very durable and woven in
tasteful figures of various colours. The colour most
valued is the Tyrian purple, obtained from the murex
shell-fish, which is found upon the Pacific Coast of
Nicaragua. This colour is produced of any desirable
depth and tone, and is permanent ; unaffected alike by
exposure to the sun and to the action of alkalies. The
process of dyeing the thread illustrates the patient assi-

7!l Translation quoted by Dr. E. Schunck in " Notes on the Purple of
the Ancients, " Jenrn. Chew. Soc., xxxvii., 1880, Trans., pp. 613-614.

;" "The English- American, his Travail by Sea and Land : etc.,"
London, 1648 (quoted by MacCurdy, Alem. Conn. Atad. Arts & Sciences,
iii.. New Haven, March, 1911, p. 160).

si "Nicaragua, its People, Scenery, Monuments, etc./' 1852, vol. i..
p. 286.

Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry. 23

duity of the Indians. It is taken to the sea-side, when a
sufficient number of shells are collected, which being
dried from the sea water, the work is commenced. Each
shell is taken up singly, and a slight pressure upon the
valve which closes its mouth [operculum] forces out a
few drops of the colouring fluid, which is then almost
destitute of colour. In this each thread is dipped singly,
and after absorbing enough of the precious fluid, is care-
fully drawn out between the thumb and finger, and laid
aside to dry. Whole days and nights are spent in this
tedious process, until the work is completed. At first the
thread is of a dull blue colour, but upon exposure to the
atmosphere acquires the desired tint. The fish is not
destroyed by the operation but is returned to the sea,
when it lays in a new stock of colouring matter for a
future occasion."

In connection with the Nicoya industry, the observa-
tions of C. V. Hartman8- are interesting. On one of his
recent expeditions to the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, he
visited Guanacosta, where he saw an Indian woman from
Chiriqui wading in the water in search of Purpura. She
would put the shell to her mouth and blow into it, causing
the snail to discharge a greenish yellow fluid, which she
applied to white cotton thread. The fluid in drying turns
to purple.

An even more interesting account of the existence of
purple dyeing in the New World is that recently published
by Zelia Nuttall, viz., " A curious survival in Mexico of
the use of the Purpura shell-fish for dyeing."83 In this
paper an excellent description is given of the dyeing of
cotton thread for the manufacture of purple skirts worn
by the women of Tehuantepec. In the spring the cotton

See Mac Curdy, o/>. cit., p. 160, quoting Hartman.
" Putnam Anniversary Volume, 1909, pp. 368-384.

24 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

skeins are taken in boats by the fishermen along the coast
northward, where suitable habitats of the caracal or sea-
snail are visited. " Slipping a skein over his left wrist,
the fisherman wrenches one sea-snail after another from
the wet rocks, blows on it, causing it to exude the dye-
stuff, which resembles a milky froth, and then dabs the
cotton thread with numerous shells in succession, until it
is thoroughly saturated. When each shell had yielded its
small supply of liquid dye, some fisherman pressed it to
the rock and waited until it adhered thereto, but others
laid the shell in a pool. When treated thus the same
shells yielded a second, though diminished supply, when
the rocks were visited on the return journey" (pp.
369-370).

The late Professor von Martens, in a paper read
before the Berlin Anthropological Society on October
22nd, iSQS,84 deals very thoroughly with the subject of
purple dyeing in Central America. In this valuable con-
tribution he discusses the evidence as to whether the
employment of the shell-fish for dyeing purposes was an
independent and precolumbian invention of the Indians,
or was introduced by the Spaniards. He rightly con-
cludes that it was practised in America in pre-historic
times.

Through Professor Edward Seler, Professor von Mar-
tens obtained information of the Tehuantepec industry,
and was shown not only a purple skirt, which the Zapote-
can women wear only on special occasions and which but
few can afford, but also kerchiefs with purple stripes such
as are worn by the Huave Indians, to the south-west of
Tehuantepec.

Professor von Martens found, on examining some of

"4 I'erhand. Berliner GeselL fur Anthyop. EthnoL u. Urgesch., 1898,
pp. 482-6.

Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple Industry. 25

the only precolumbian textiles in existence, those of Peru,
preserved in the Royal Ethnographical Museum in Berlin,
a garment and some bands with narrow stripes, the colour
of which is identical with that of the Huave kerchiefs.
He also noticed the same in textiles from Chimbote,
Peru (Bolivar collection).8'

In further support of his conclusion that the dye of
the Purpura shell was used in America in precolumbian
times, Professor von Martens refers to the use, alongside
oiTeach other and in the New and Old World alike, of
two other shell products, viz., the conch-shell trumpets
and pearls. The interesting data concerning these two
products, and the evidence they afford in the spread of
certain elements of culture, will be dealt with in later
chapters. It will be sufficient here to point out that
Professor von Martens' conclusion is strikingly confirmed
by the further evidence produced by Mrs. Nuttall.*5 She
tells us that in, the ancient Mexican Codex named after
her, a beautiful purple paint is profusely used. This
Codex " contains pictures of no fewer than thirteen women
of rank wearing purple skirts, and five with capes and
jackets of the same colour. In addition, forty-six chieftains
are figured with short, fringed, rounded purple waist-
cloths, and there are also three examples of the use of a
close-fitting purple cap." Priests and other personages
are also represented whose bodies, and sometimes faces,
are painted purple, and throughout the Codex the same
colour appears in combination with others in ornamental
designs and figures.

Mrs. Nuttall points out further that "the shade of the
purple paint used is identical with that of the purpura
dye, and until it is demonstrated to us that the native

S5 Von Martens, op. cit., p. 485.
86 Nuttall, op. ft/., pp. 380-1.

26 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

artists obtained this colour from some now unknown
mineral or vegetal dye, it may be assumed that they also
used the purpura dye in preparing their paint and in
depicting personages with body paint and garments dyed
by means of the same shell-fish."87

The employment of purple paint in "ancient Mexican
manuscripts is decidedly interesting and recalls the use
made of this famous colour for dyeing the ecclesiastical
parchments in Europe during early times. In like manner
the purple facial-painting of the Aztecs, as demonstrated
by their manuscripts, is a curious parallel to the em-
ployment of purple for the cheeks and lips . in Roman
times.

Some further important evidence of the use of shell-
fish in dyeing in precolumbian times has lately been
furnished by the discovery of broken Purpura shells in
Inca graves in North Chile. L. E. Adams, in his " Con-
chological Notes from Chile and Brazil,"88 mentions the
occurrence of broken shells of Purpura in a " kitchen
midden " on the steep mountain-side at Pisagua. These
were discovered, along with other marine shells, in the
course of road improvements, the road in question being
found to traverse an Inca burying ground. Adams states :
" Several human skeletons were lying on or just below
the surface, all in the characteristic doubled-up attitude ;
they had been buried wrapped up in a coarse grass
matting. None of the skulls were perfect, the upper and
lower jaws were all missing, as if the excavators had taken
them to study the dentition."

" In addition to human remains, were skulls of some
large species of dolphin, skulls of sea-lions (? Otaria
jubata], the rib of a small whale, and dogs both large and

>r Nuttall. op. c//., p. 381.

88 /oitin. oj Conc/w/ogy, xiv. , 191^, p. 349.

Geographical Distribution of iJic Shell-Purple Industry. 27

small ; to one of the latter, which \vas enveloped in mat-
ting, the reddish hair was adhering."

It is suggested by Adams, and by H. B. Preston who
identified the various shells, that the Pitrpura were the
refuse of food, the shells having probably been split open
to obtain the animal whole. The breaking of the Purpura,
however, seems to me to possess a greater significance.

Judging from the occurrence in the Old World of
similar heaps of shells broken in the same peculiar manner
in order to obtain the purple product, it is not at all
unreasonable to assume that here we have an indication
that the Incas were cognizant of the art of purple dyeing
by means of shell-fish. This discovery, therefore, is most
valuable, as it at once disposes of any further doubt
concerning the precolumbian use of shell-fish for dyeing
purposes, and^ moreover, provides us with interesting
information as to the precise source of the purple colour
in the beautifully preserved textiles of Peru.

As already pointed out, this purple industry is closely
associated, both in the Old and in the New World, with
the appreciation of pearls and the use of the artificially
devised conch-shell trumpet. Each of these cultural
elements had their origin in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Stations for the purple industry, as we have seen, were
established by the early Mediterranean mariners in several
places in the Old World. In addition, we find that an
intimate relationship existed between this art and skill in
weaving, as well as the mining, working and trafficking in
metals, such as gold, silver and copper.

In the New World the purple industry is associated
with similar pursuits.

As Mrs. Nuttall points out, " we find that, in pre-
Columbian times, the Zapotecs, whose descendants still
use the purpura, were famed as miners, as workers in

28 Shells as evidence of tJie Migration^.

copper, gold and silver, as weavers, and as enterprising
traders who travelled far and wide, trafficking with these
products and the cocoa-bean." 8

Similarly, the ancient Chiriquians of the Fanamic
region, whose descendants, the Guaymis, still go in search
of the Purpura shells, were metal workers in gold, copper
and their alloys.

That all the foregoing, in addition to other associated
elements of culture, could have developed independently
in the Old and in the New World is inconceivable. In
Mexico, Central and South America, the aborigines un-
animously disclaim their independent discovery of all arts
and industries and assign their introduction to strangers
of superior culture from distant and unknown parts.80

As Mrs. Nuttall justly concludes, " it seems almost
easier to believe that certain elements of an ancient
European culture were at one time, and perhaps once only,
actually transmitted by the traditional small band of ...
Mediterranean sea-farers, than to explain how, under
totally different conditions of race and climate, the identical
ideas and customs should have arisen." m

The peculiar and distinctive character of the shell-
purple industry is in itself sufficient justification for this
conclusion, as it is altogether unlikely that different people
could have adopted so remarkable a custom, along with
identical methods of extracting the precious purple matter
from shell-fish.

In glancing over the facts quoted in this chapter it will
be at once apparent that many gaps exist in the
geographical distribution of this remarkable industry.
These lacunae, however, are probably more apparent than

"ll Nuttall, op. cit., p. 381.
!l" find. pp. 382-3.
1)1 Ibid. pp. 383-4.

GeograpJiical Distribution of tJtc Shell-Purple Industrv. 29

real, and are due rather to lack of precise information,
than to an entire absence of the art in certain places.

I have been unable so far to trace any indication of
this industry in the numerous islands of the Pacific.9-1

Judging from the presence in these islands of other
associated elements of culture, such as shell-trumpets and
pearls, acquired by direct or indirect contact with the
Eastern Mediterranean, it seems possible that the art of
dyeing by means of shell-fish also spread in this direction.
Various circumstances, however, may have prevented the
adoption of so curious a custom.

It must be remembered that particular kinds of shell-
fish were necessary for the production of the purple, and
much would depend on the presence of one or other of
these forms in the seas round the islands of the Pacific.
Murex and Purpura certainly occur in their neighbour-
hood, but they are totally unlike the purple-yielding shell-
fish of the Mediterranean — a fact that may have led to
their being disregarded by the bearers of the particular
culture. It is only when we reach the American coast
that we find a form of shell-fish analogous to that used by
Tyrian dyers of ancient times.

'J- The reference to its use in New Zealand, given in AJancli. JMan.,
Vol. 60, 1915, No. I, p. 36, is founded on a misunderstanding.

CHAPTER II.

Shell-Trumpets and their Distribution in the
Old and New World.

The wide-spread use of shells as horns or trumpets is
of very ancient origin.

The Latin word Buccina, or Buccinum, a trumpet,
was indiscriminately applied by the ancients to almost
every kind of spiral univalve shell. Amongst the Greeks
the large Triton nodiferus, Lam., was the trumpet used
in land- and sea-fights, as well as for setting the watch
and calling together assemblies of the people.1

Triton, Neptune's trumpeter, is generally depicted
with a large conch shell in his hand, with which it is fabled
he convened the river deities around their monarch. It
is wreathed, like those called Sikanos, or Sea-horn,
common to India, Africa, and the Mediterranean, and still
used as trumpets for blowing alarms or giving signals.2

Itanian coins (circa 200-67 B.C.) have the figure of a
sea-god or triton carrying a trident and blowing a conch-
shell.3

Triton holding a conch with both hands and blowing
into it is also seen on the coins of Agrigentum, Sicily
(before B.C. 4o6.)4

Pliny tells us that a deputation of persons from
Olisipo [Lisbon], that had been sent for the purpose,
brought word to the Emperor Tiberius that a triton had

T Jeffreys, "Brit. Conch.," iv., 1867, p. 284.

2 Mary Roberts, "Popular History of the Mollusca,'' 1851, p. 97.

5 B.V. Head, "Hist. Numorum," 1887, p. 398.

4 Ibid. p. 106 ; and " B.M. Cat. Greek Coins : Sicily,3' 1876, p. 15.

32 Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

been both seen and heard in a certain cavern, blowing a
conch-shell, and of the form under which they are usually
represented.3 And one of the Scholiasts on Homer says,
that before the discovery of the brazen trumpet by the
Tyrrhenians, the conch-shell was in general use for that
purpose.6

The larger species of B-uccinum is still used by
Italian herdsmen in directing their cattle. It is also
common in North Wales, Staffordshire, Lithuania, and
Muscovy, where they are also applied to pastoral pur-
posesv7 At Casamicciola, in the Island of Ischia, conch
shell trumpets are sounded to scare away thieves and
birds from the vineyards and gardens/ Sicilian fishermen
use Triton nodiferns as a trumpet, and Verany tells us
that at Nice this shell, with a hole at the top, serves as a
trumpet for the fishermen and country people, and that
the braying noise produced by it renders this unmusical
instrument indispensible for the old-fashioned charivari,
which he describes as a deafening serenade to signalize
the marriages of widows and ill-assorted couples.y A.
Mosso relates that the Triton is still sounded in church
at Piedmont, and that during the services in Holy Week
at Chieri, when the choir was singing the psalms, and a
table was struck with sticks during the so-called tenebrae
of the sepulchre, the sacristan gave him a Triton shell to
sound.10 Issel also relates that during the services of

8 Pliny, "Nat. Hist.,'' ix., ch. 4. (Bohn's Ed., vol. ii., p. 362).
'• Ibid, (footnote by Bostock & Riley).

7 Roberts, op. cit., p. 97, and Lovell, " Edible Brit. Moll,"' 1884, p.

194.

s Lovell, op. cit., p. 194, quoting Dr. Wm. Russell, *' Memories of
Ischia," Nineteenth Century, Sept., 1883.

9 Jeffreys, op.-cit., iv., 1867, p. 303.

10 Mosso, " The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization," 1910, p. 365.

S hell- Tr ttmpets and their Distribution. 33

Holy Week in the Cathedral of Genoa, the Triton nodiferus
used to be sounded."

In his paper on "Purple Dyeing in Central America,"12
Professor von Martens refers to the survival of the use of
shell-trumpets at the present day in certain localities in
southern France, Elba, Corsica, and Sicily, for the sum-
moning of fishermen and field labourers.

In the 1 8th century the Corsican militia, under Paoli,
employed them instead of drums and trumpets.1'

Triton shells are still in common use in Crete,
especially among the village guards, as a means of raising
an alarm or calling for help.14

As in the case of Shell-purple,15 the island of Crete
figures very prominently in the early use of shell-trumpets.

Mariani has published a Minoan seal on which a
woman is sounding the shell of a Triton before the sacred
horns of an altar.10 This seal, which was found in the
Iclaean cave, is also described and figured by A. J. Evans
in his " Mycenaean Tree and Pillar Cult"17 " Here," he
tells us, " a female votary is seen blowing a conch-shell
or triton before an altar of the usual Mycenaean shape.
Above the altar is seen a group of three trees, apparently
cypresses, and immediately in front of them the ' horns of
consecration.' To the right of the altar is a rayed symbol,
to the left is apparently another altar base, with a conical

11 Ibid. p. 365, quoiing A. Issel, " Revista Ligure di Scicnze,
Lettere ed Arti," Geneva, 1908, p. 19.

12 Vcrhand, Berlin. Ciess. Anthrop. Ethnol. und Urges,, 1898, p. 485.

15 Von Martens, op. cit., p. 485, quoting Boswell, "Description of
Corsica.'' 1768, p. 183.

14 A. J. Evans, Journ. Hellenic Studies, xxi., 1901, p. 142.

1 5 See chapter I .

10 L. Mariani, " Monununti Antici" vi., 1895, p. 178, f. 12.

17 A. J. Evans, op. cil., p. 142, f. 25.

34 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

excrescence, and behind the votary another tree. From
this gem it appears that the conch-shell trumpet per-
formed a ritual function in summoning the divinity."

At Palaikastro, and elsewhere, real Triton shells were
found which had been used for purposes of cult.18

R. C. Bosanquet points out in his " Excavations at
Palaikastro, I." that " the 7W/0«-shell occurs as frequently
in early deposits in Crete as it does in Mycenaean orna-
ment— for the so-called Murex on the later pottery is only
a degradation of the Triton™*

A. J. Evans, in his account of the Knossos Excava-
tions, I9O3,'20 illustrates a Minoan clay seal impression, on
which two 7W/0»-shelIs are represented. He also records
the discovery of an alabaster vase in the shape of a Triton-
shell.a Miniature clay models of the same conch-shell,
with remains of a little terra-cotta Sanctuary, were also
found in an early basement on the East side of the
Palace.22

This Early Minoan rite spread in the Mediterranean
region, for eighteen unbroken specimens of the same
shell, Triton nodiferus, were found by Don Morelli in
the Caverna delle Arene Candide, besides two hundred
broken ones ; and as they all had the apex removed it
can be concluded that they were sounded like trumpets.23
Other Triton shells were found in the Caverna dei Balzi
Rosso, in the Cave of Galuzzo and the Cave of Pollera.24

18 Ann. Brit. Sch. Athens, viii., (1901-2), pp. 32, 89, 244, 296,
305, 308 ; ix., (1902-3), pp. 275, 291, 312, and 335 ; x., (1903-4), PP- I97>
and 202.

10 Ibid, viii., (1901-2), p. 296.

20 Ibid, ix., (1902-3), p. 56, f. 34.

21 Ibid, ix., (1902-3), p. 36.

22 Ibid, viii., (1901-2), p. 32.

28 N. Morelli, " Resti organici rinvenuti nella Caverna delle Arene
Candide," Geneva, 1901, p. in.

24 Mosso, op. cit., 1910, p. 363.

Shell-Trumpets and their Distribution. 35

In another Ligurian cave, the Grotta di Bergeggi, a
Murex trunculus pierced at the apex was found.25

In excavating the Minoan Sanctuary of Cannatello,
near Girgenti, Mosso also found pieces of the Triton™

In speaking of the Triton shells found in the neolithic
caves of Liguria (see above), Mosso states that they are
too numerous for them to have been used for signals, but
" the fact that they are found associated with human
bones gives reason to suppose that even in neolithic times
these shells were sounded with a religious signification,
as we see on the Minoan seals of Crete."27

Amongst the various species of shells used as trumpets,
the chank-shell ( Turbinella pyruni] is of special interest
from its intimate connection with the religion of Hindus
and Buddhists.

In a brief paper on "The Aztec Moon-cult and its
relation to the Chank-cult of India," • * I have already
referred to the association of the chank with the Hindu
god, Vishnu, and his many incarnations.

The whole subject of Hindu chank-cult has been
recently treated in a most admirable manner by James
Ilornell in "The Sacred Chank of India,"29 and much
of the following information is derived from his excellent
work.

In Hindu temple worship, Hornell tells us, "the
chank fulfils important service. The ordinary and sinis-
tral forms are both employed whenever the temple
possesses them. The former is used in the menial duty
of summoning the god's attention, announcing the com-
mencement of the principal rites, as well as in calling the

-5 T. E. Peet, " The Stone and Bronze Ages in Italy," 1909, p. 54.
-" Mosso, op. cit., 1910, p. 364.

27 Ibid. p. 363.

28 Manch. Memoirs (Lit. and Phil. Soc.}, vol, 60, pt. ii., 1916.
20 Madras Fisheries Publication, No. 7, 1914.

36 Shells as evidence of tiie Migrations.

devout to worship ; such are among the general explana-
tions given for its employment, but some ethnologists hold
that the innate and primitive significance of the use of the
blowing chank in temple worship is to scare away hostile
and evil-working spirits. This is a reasonable belief as
there is little or no doubt that the chank was used origin-
ally as a horn or trumpet by tribes holding animistic
beliefs prior to the development of the Brahman religion,
which appears to have adopted the use of the chank in
religious ceremonies together with many other rites from
the devil-fearing tribes who gradually came into the fold
of the new and higher religious belief." ao

In Bengal it is customary to keep blowing-chanks in
the houses of the better class people for use in family
worship, and during eclipses and earthquakes these shells
are blown continuously till the eclipse or earthquake is
over.:;l

Unlike the sinistral shells, which are usually mounted
in handsomely decorated golden settings, the temple
conchs are. usually without any ornamentation, but the
Udipi temple owns one very beautifully mounted in brass,
and this is sounded whenever the god (Krishna) is carried
in procession in the temple car.8-

Chanks used as wind instruments are chosen of as
large size as possible, and the only preparation they
require is to have the apex knocked off.

Apart from their actual use in temple ritual, chank-
trumpets are employed in connection with harvest rites,
marriage and funeral ceremonies, and in various other
ways in different parts of India. It is an essential part
of the professional paraphernalia used by certain castes
of religious medicants. " The Dasari," Hornell tells us, " is

50 Hornell, op. cif., pp. 134-5.

51 Ibid. p. 135.

•~a Ibid. pi. xvii., fig. i.

Shell-Trumpets and their Distribution. 37

often seen in North Arcot and the Southern Deccan,
announcing his arrival in a village by blasts on the chank
shell."

In Malabar, at the ceremony of the bringing in of the
first fruits, the priest comes forth from the local temple,
preceded by a man blowing a conch.

Similarly in Siam, conch-shell music is employed at
religious ceremonies connected with the ploughing festival.
The principal figure at these ceremonies is the Minister of
Agriculture, who is borne in a palanquin to the field with
an escort of priests blowing loud blasts on chank shells.1"'

At weddings, among all Hindu non-Brahman castes
in the districts of the south of India, the chank is blown
by the barber (ambattan) particularly at or immediately
after the tying of the tali or marriage badge round the
bride's neck. In Bengal this custom of chank-blowing
during weddings is even more general.

Though men are usually engaged to blow the chank
at weddings, the women of the family or of the particular
caste sometimes perform this duty.

A further interesting use of chank-trumpets is in con-
nection with the rite of circumcision which survives among
the P u ram ali nadu Kalians. This rite is carried out in a
grove or plain outside the village, and the chank is blown
at frequent intervals en route and throughout the cere-
mony.34

Throughout the Tamil country all non-Brahman castes
which observe Hindu rites have the chank sounded at
death ceremonies. The chank sometimes has a place in
the death ceremonies of castes which are not Hinduised,
as the Cherumans of Malabar and Cochin. Here the
chank- trumpet is used for devil-driving."'

33 Hornell. op. cit., p. 144.
3* Ibid. pp. 144-5.
86 Ibid. pp. 148-9.

38 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

The chank is frequently employed upon native-owned
plantations in South India and Ceylon to summon the
workpeople to their duties.

In the Laccadive Islands it is used to call the people
together in cases of emergency and public requirements:'6

In addition to the use of the chank, Turbinella pyrinn,
as a trumpet in India, T. Wilson, in his " Prehistoric
Art,":5T mentions other trumpets made from Cassis, or
helmet shell (called Gomukha) and from Pterocera (called
Barataka).

Speaking of the use of shell-trumpets in Ceylon,
Lovell 38 states, " According to the most ancient annals
of the Cingalese, the chank-shell is sounded in one of the
superior heavens of the demigods (similar to the conch-
blowing tritons of Grecian mythology) in honour of
Buddha, as often as the latter wanders abroad on the
earth."' HornelP1 also says, " In the purer Buddhism of
Ceylon the chank cult also finds place, and figures promi-
nently among the musical instruments employed to lend
eclat to the periodic procession (pcraJierd] of the tooth-
relic at Kandy."

In Thibet, according to the writings of travellers in
that country, the call of the chank is amongst the most
familiar sounds to be heard in the monasteries and
temples of the Lamaistic faith. It is also the custom to
sound the chank as the body of a deceased monk or nun
is being conveyed from the place where death occurred.40

Chank-shells, especially sinistral specimens, are held
in special veneration by the Chinese, and are kept in the
Pagodas by the priests for use on special occasions.

•'•" Ibid. p. 172.

••' Rept. U.S. Nat. A/MS, for 1896 (1898), p. 555.

s Lovell, op. cit., p. 195.
"9 HernelJ, op. cit., p. 137.
411 Ibid. pp. 137 and 149.

Shell- Trumpets and their Distribution. 39

They are also blown to still the waves and ensure
safe voyages. The Chinese, likewise, use a large shell, a
species of Fusus, for their fog-horns.41

Both Huish4' and Rein,41 in their works on Japan,
mention the use of TW/fl/z-horns in that country. Rein
tells us that shells of Triton tritonis (Japan, Hora-gai)
" were formerly employed as signal horns and provided
with a brass mouthpiece to replace the tips. According
to Pinto, in blowing them, riot was indicated by one blast,
fire by two blasts, robbery by three, treachery by four,
though they also played a part as signal horns in war, and
were therefore also called Jin-gai, war mussel shells or
camp snails. Their blowers were the Hora-fiu, or Hora-
wo-fuku. Both these expressions for blowers of the
Triton's horn have become in Japan the common desig-
nation for a person who is fond of boasting : * Ano hito
wa hora wo fuku,' he blows the Triton's horn, *>., he is
bragging."

In the East Indian Archipelago and the Pacific
Islands, we find many instances of the use of shells as
trumpets.

In describing the wind instruments used by the tribes
of Borneo, Shelford14 relates that some Brunei Malays
recently informed him that a trumpet, made by merely
knocking off the top whorl of the large helmet-shell Cassis
tuberosum, was used by them for calling their buffaloes
together ; their name for the trumpet was " buyong." He
could hear of no other people in Borneo who employ a
similar instrument.

41 A. H. Cooke, •' Mollusks." Camb. Nat. Hist., 1895, PP- Ioi-2-

*- Huish, "Japan and its Art," 1893, pp. 146-7.

48 J. J. Rein, -'Japan," 1884, p. 207.

44 R. Shelford. "Illus. Cat. Ethnog. Coll. Sarawak Museum: Ft. i.,
Musical Instruments." Jditrn. Straits Branch Roy. Asiatic Soc. , No. 40.
June, 1904, p. 20.

40 Shells as evidence of the Migrations*

Von Martens refers to the use of shell -trumpets in
the Philippine Islands, in the island of Halmaheira (or
Gilolo)45 and by the Alfurs of Ceram.46

A fine specimen of a trumpet made from a large
Triton tritonis has recently been shown me by Professor
S. J. Hickson. It was obtained by him in the Celebes,
and is perforated on the side of one of the upper whorls.
It was used by the boatman who carried round the mails,
and may have originally come up from the south.

In Papua, or New Guinea, Cassis cornuta, Triton
tritonis, and Ranella lampas, are used as trumpets, having
a hole drilled as a mouthpiece in one of the upper whorls.47
In addition to the Triton, Moseley48 tells that a large
conical Strombus, perforated at the apex, not on the side,
as in Triton, is used by the natives of Humboldt Bay.
Among the musical instruments used by the natives of
the Admiralty Islands are conch-shells perforated on the
side as usual.49

The only instrument of the trumpet kind used by the
Torres Straits Islanders is a giant Fusns [F.proboscidiferus,
Lam.50], or occasionally a large Triton. The Fusus is
universally employed, and, according to Haddon,51 the
mouth-hole is always lateral. It was employed for con-
veying signals, but now at all events is most frequently
blown when the natives are sailing, especially when going
fast or racing.

** Ztits. fur Ethno /. , iv., 1872, p. 34, fide Schmeltz, " Schnecken und
Muscheln im leben der volker Indonesians und Oceaniens," Leiden, 1894.

46 Verhand. der fieri. Anthro. Gfss., 1898, p. 485.

47 A. H. Cooke, op. cit., p. 99.

4S Moseley, "Notes by a Naturalist on H.M.S. 'Challenger','1 1892.
P- 378.

* Moseley, op. cit., p. 407, also Jour. Anthrop. lust., 6, 1876-7,
p. 411.

B* Probably Megalatrachus aruanus (L).

51 "Anthrop. Exped, to Torres Straits." Cambridge, iv., 1912, p. 283.
and fig. 248.

Shell-Trumpets nnd their Distribution. 41

There is a 7V//<?;/-trumpet in the British Museum from
the mouth of the Fly River, British New Guinea, which,
according to Chalmers, is used for calling to arms and tor
frightening away the evil spirits of sickness from the
village.88

W. H. R. .Rivers, in his work on " The History of
Melanesian Society "™ tells us that the conch-shell is one
of the objects used in Banks Islands, in the ritual of
initiation into the Sukwe. On the initiation of a candi-
date into Kwatagiav, the conch-shell is blown five times,
three long continuous blasts and two interrupted blasts.
It is also used at initiation into the Tamate liwoa. In
Torres Islands the conch is blown at ceremonies of kava
drinking.54

From the same authority we learn that " the conch-
shell exists in two forms in Melanesia, one blown by means
of a circular hole in the side, and the other blown at
the end. The former is that used at the Sukive and
in most parts of Melanesia, and this form is also in
general use in Polynesia. Its occurrence in Polynesia
points to its ascription either to the kava-people or
to the people who interred their dead in the sitting
position, and there is reason to suppose that it was of
especial importance in connection with the chiefs. It may
also be noted that, in Malikolo, it is used at the funerals
of chiefs. This connection with chiefs both in Polynesia
and southern Melanesia, suggests that it was the kava-
people who brought with them the use of the conch, a
conclusion in harmony with its prominence in the ritual
of the Sukwe.

" In the Solomons, however, the conch is of especial
importance in connection with head-hunting. It is used

r'2 Haddon, op.cit., p. 283.

i3 2 vols., Cambridge, 1914.

r'4 Rivers, op. cit., i.. pp. 64, 98, 186.

42 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

as a signal, especially in the ceremonies which accompany
the return from a successful expedition, and this suggests
either that it is an element of culture common to the
kava- anc] betel -peoples, or that it was taken over by the
betel-people from the earlier inhabitants.

'' The only place in Melanesia where we know of the
existence of the conch-shell blown at the end is Efate
[New Hebrides], and its association here with a special
form of totemism suggests that it is connected with a
special development of the kava-culture which has been
responsible for the form of totemism found in this
region." '

In discussing the material culture of the inhabitants
of the Bismarck Archipelago, Rivers further relates that
" the conch made of the shell of the Triton is not only
definitely present in New Britain and New Ireland, but it
has that place in the ritual of the secret organisations
which we should expect if it were introduced by the
kava-people. When the members of the Ingiet take one
of their stone images from one place to another, its
approach is heralded by the sound of the conch which
warns all uninitiated persons to get out of the way.
When an uninitiated person hears the conch, he says,
' Here comes an image from Nakanai,' thus associating
the instrument with one of the more sacred images.
Another indication of the importance of the conch in the
Ingiet is that it may be shown to an initiate in place of a
stone image if one of these is not available, thus suggesting
that the conch may once have formed one of the mysteries
of the society, comparable with the werewere or vieretang
of the Banks Islands or the bullroarer of the Matambala
and

Ibid, ii., p. 459.
I hid. ii., p. 535.

Shell-Trumpets and tJieir Distribution. 43

Zembsch, in his " Katalog No. i verzeichniss einer
ethnographischen Sammlung aus der Slidsee,"'"7 gives a
photo of a clay figure of a god from Malikolo with a
7W/0#-tnimpet tied to each hand. The trumpets are
perforated on the side of the spire.

In the Solomon Islands, Guppy58 teils us that the shell-
trumpets are made of large examples of both Triton and
Cassis, with a hole pierced on the side of the spire.

In the island of Tanna, in the New Hebrides, shell-
trumpets are blown as signals to the disease-makers, or
sorcerers, to entreat them to stop plaguing their victims.
" These disease-makers collected any uahak\ or rubbish,
that had belonged to anyone, such as the skin of a banana
he had eaten, wrapped it in a leaf like a cigar, and burned
it slowly at one end. As it burnt, the owner's illness
increased ; and if it was burnt to the end, he died ; there-
fore, as soon as a man fell ill, feeling sure that some sorcerer
was burning his rubbish, shell-trumpets, which can be
heard for miles, are blown as a signal for the sorcerers to
stop, and wait for the presents which should be sent, in the
morning. When a disease-maker fell ill himself, he too
believed that some one was burning his rubbish, and had
his shells blown for mercy."39

Hedley, in his " Ethnology of Funafuti,""" tells us
that the Ellice Islanders are called together to a trial or
other public ceremony by the blowing of a shell trumpet
made from the large Cassis cornuta.

The conch-shell also ranges among the musical instru-

•r Ethnographische AUeilung der Buchhandlung und Druckerei vor-
mals, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1897, pi. iii.

Ob Guppy, "The Solomon Islands, and their natives,3' 1887, p. 143.

•~>1J Lovell, op. dt., 1884, p. 195, quoting Turner's " Polynesia,"' and
Taylors '* History of Mankind," p. 128. See also (i. Turner's "Samoa,
etc., 1884, pp. 320-21.

"" Mem. Anst. .Wtts.. iii., pt. 4, 1897. p. 299.

44 Shells <is evidence of tJie Migrations.

merits of the Fijians, and of the Maories of New Zea-
land.61

When Captain Wilson visited Tongataboo, in the
Friendly Islands, in 1/97, four large conch- shells were
found on the floor of a large house sacred to the god of
Bretane. These were used to alarm the country in times
of danger. In these islands conch-shells were also blown
at the interment of chiefs/5-'

Shell-trumpets, made from Triton tritonis and other
large shells, enter largely into the religious ceremonies of
the Samoans.

In his description of the religion of these people,
Turner63 relates that " in their temples they had generally
something for the eye to rest upon with superstitious
reveration. In one might be seen a conch shell, suspended
from the roof in a basket made of cinnet network ; and
this the god was supposed to blow when he wished the
people to rise to war."

The Samoans have a host of imaginary deities, and
these gods are supposed to be incarnate in some visible
object, the particular thing in which the god appears being
an object of veneration.

Faarnalu (shade ), one of the village gods, was repre-
sented by a trumpet-shell, and at the annual worship of
this god all the people met in the place of public gatherings
with heaps of cooked food. Another local god was called
Tapaai (Beckoning) and was a war god of a family on
Tutuila. He was supposed to be present in a trumpet-
shell. When the people were about to go to war the shell
was blown by the priest, and all listened. If it blew rough

61 Lubbock, "Prehistoric Times," 1865, pp. 358 and 369. Captain
Cook also mentions the " Triton's trumpet" as one of the sonorous instru-
ments of the New Zealanders.

2 G. A. Cooke. "System of Universal Geography,'' London, i..
i So i, pp. 77 and 97.

03 G. Turner, "Samoa, etc.," London, 1884, P- 19-

Shell-Tnunpets and their Distribution. 45

and hollow it was a bad sign ; but if clear and euphonic
all were cheered, and went off joyfully under the good
omen. In the island of Savaii a village god named Titi
usi (Glittering leaf girdle; was worshipped at the new
moon, and after prayer and feasting a man went about
blowing a shell-trumpet as a sign that the ceremonies
were over, and that the usual routine of village and family
life might be resumed."4 A further use of shell-trumpets
noted by Turner in Samoa was to herald the approach of
some important personage. A chief of importance must
have one, or perhaps two, large shells in his canoe, tc»
answer the purpose of trumpets, to blow now and then as
the canoe passed along.'"

In Manahiki, or Humphrey's Island, Turner states
that when the constellation Pleiades was seen there was
unusual joy expressed by singing, dancing, and blowing
shell-trumpets.""

In the Society Is. large shells of Triton tritonis, L.
are used as trumpets, and these are blown when proces-
sions walk to the temple, or warriors march to battle, at
the inauguration of the king, during the worship at the
temple, or when a tabu, or restriction is imposed in the
name of the gods. Ellis117 tells us that large shells were
selected for this purpose, and these were sometimes above
a foot in length, and seven or eight inches in diameter at
the mouth. In order to facilitate the blowing of the
trumpet, a perforation, about an inch in diameter, was
made near the apex of the shell. Into this a bamboo
cane, some three feet in length, was inserted, and secured
to the shell with fine braid. The outside of the aperture
was rendered air-tight by a resinous gum from the bread-

04 Turner, op. cit., pp. 27, 54, 60.

06 Ibid. pp. 165-6.

"" Ibid. p. 279.

• i "Polynesian Researches," i., 1836, pp. 196-7.

46 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

fruit tree. These trumpets are also used by the herald,
and on board the native fleets.

Captain Cook also speaks of the natives of Toobouai
Island blowing large conch-shells in a long tone without
any variation ; but what it portended he could not ascer-
tain.88

Hutchinson* gives a casual reference to the shell-
trumpets of the Marquesas Islands, saying that they differ
from that known as " Bosina" in Peru (see below).

In Micronesia, shell-trumpets are recorded as in use
at Ponape (Ascension Is.), Caroline Islands, and in the
Marshall Archipelago.70 Of their use in the Pelevv Islands,
Captain Wilson tells us700 that in 1783, as a preliminary
to an attack on a neighbouring enemy, the king, Abba
Thulle, ordered the conch to be sounded as a signal for
forming the line of battle. Captain King also refers to
the blowing of the conch as a signal of defiance and
warning in the Sandwich Islands.71

In the New World we have several instances of the
use of shells as trumpets. A species of Triton was used
formerly by the Indians of South America as a trumpet,
and a specimen was dug up at Canete, in Peru. The
shell was called " Bosina," on account of the sound pro-
duced by blowing into it resembling the roar of a bull,
and it was used to announce the approach of any great
man into a town. It was ornamented with tassels of
human hair, and a leather strap of exquisite workmanship.72

03 G. A. Cooke, op. cit., \., p. 65.

69 Journ. Anthrop. Inst., iv., 1874, p. 13.

70 O. Finsch, " Ethnologische Erfahrungen and Belegstiicke aus der
Siidsee," Annal. des K. K. nathist. Hof museums , Wien, 1888 — 93, fide
Schmeltz, op. cit.

70a" An account of the Pelevv Islands," London, 1789, p. 150.

71 G. A. Cooke, op. cit., i., pp. 306 and 353.

72 Lovell, op. cit.) p. 196, quoting Hutchinson's " Two -Years in Peru,"
vol. i., p. 134.

Shell- Trumpets and their Distribution. 47

An interesting survival of this practise in Central
America is recorded by Theobert Maler in his " Researches
in the Central Portion of the Usumatsintla Valley."" On
p. 33 of his paper he relates how his arrival at the Indian
settlements at Petha was greeted by the blowing of conch-
shell trumpets made from Strombus gigas.

According to Pinart,74 the musical instruments of the
present natives (Guaymis) of the Chiriquian region of
Panama are limited chiefly to the bone-flute and the
marine conch-shell. He describes one of their ceremonies,
the balza, in which the conch-shell plays an important
role. When a village has decided to give a balzaria and
the date has been fixed upon, notice is given to other
villages inviting the inhabitants to attend. Everyone is
invited, men and women, young and old. According to
the distance away, each family group sets out in time to
arrive at the place of meeting two days before the com-
mencement of the ceremonies. During the journey, the
invited guests blow from time to time on large conch-
shells in order to make known to all persons living near
the line of route their passage and the purpose of their
journey.

Pinart believes the Guaymis to be the descendants
of the race that constructed the ancient huacals from
which so many Chiriquian antiquities have come. This
ancient race has left behind them numerous examples of
wind-instruments of clay, modelled in the form of animals
and birds. One of these figurines serving as a whistle
represents a mythical form holding something resembling
a fish or conch-shell a little distance from the mouth.75

rs Memoirs Peabody Museum, ii., no. i., 1901.

74 Alphonse Pinart, "Les Indians de 1'Etat de Panama," Rev. cCethnog.,
vi., 1887, PP- 33> ii?? (quoted by Mac Curdy, "A Study of Chiriquian
Antiquities/' Memoirs Conn. Acad.Arts and Sciences •, iii., 1911, pp. 169-170).

75 Mac Curdy, op. cit., p. 185, fig. 315.

48 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

An analogous idea is expressed in a beautiful Chiriquian
gold casting of two human figures with elbows touching
and holding to their mouths something that resembles a
conch-shell or a fish.7'1

Robert Brown relates that the descendants of the
Incas, in Peru, under the rule of Francesco de Toledo, in
1568, held periodical festivals in memory of their beloved
sovereigns, when plays were enacted and mournful music
produced from the national instruments, drums, trumpets,
clarions, and putatns, or sea shells."

According to von Martens,78 the Jesuit priest Arriaga,
at the beginning of the i/th century, also describes the
use of shell- trumpets in Peru, and in the Bolivar collection
of the Berlin Ethnographical Museum there is a pre-
Columbian trumpet made of Strombus galeatus.

The Portuguese writer, Suarez de Sousa, in 1589, and
Marcgrave, about 1640, report on the use of trumpets in
Brazil, made probably of Strombus goliatJi.'*

In a paper on the ruins in Casa Grande, in Southern
Arizona,80 J. W. Fewkes states: "Among the more numerous
marine shells which were found in Compound B of the
Casa Grande group of ruins are many large conchs, the
points of the spires of nearly all of which were ground off
and perforated as if for trumpets. Judging from known
ceremonies of the Hopi, it is highly probable that these
trumpets were used in dramatic celebrations in which
effigies of the great serpent were introduced, the priest
using the instruments to imitate the supposed roar of this
animal. More than a dozen complete specimens, and
many fragments of conch shells that may have been parts

7t: AW. pp. 185, 209, and pi. xlix., fig. A.

'• " Races of Mankind," i., N.D., p. 316.

7 " Von Martens, op. tit. , p. 485.

•'•' Ibid. p. 485.

80 2Slh Ann. kept. Bureau of Anur. Ethnology, 1912. pp. 144 — 5.

Shell- Trumpets and their Distribution. 49

of trumpets, were found in the course of the excavations
at Casa Grande, the greater number being obtained on
the west side of Compound B. All these shells came
originally from the Pacific coast."

G. H. Pepper, in his paper on " The Exploration of a
burial-room in Pueblo Bonito, New Mexico,"81 also records
the discovery of a shell trumpet, made from Strombus
galeatns. It had evidently been cracked in use and showed
signs of repair. Associated with it was a human skeleton ;
also Haliotis shells, and 26 perfect shell bracelets and 15
fragments. The bracelets, he adds, averaged 8-5 c/m. in
diameter, and are probably made from Pectunculus shells.
In other parts of the room were further shell bracelets,
pendants, and beads, of Olivella shells ; also ornaments of
turquoise and shell mosaic.8-

Carl Lumholtz, in an interesting paper on " Sym-
bolism of the Huichol Indians," 8:) gives us details of the
use of a species of Murex as a trumpet at ceremonies and
feasts. After describing various other objects used at the
feast of tamales de maiz crudo, he states (p. 185) : " At the
same feast, but only on the eastern side of the river, sea-
shells are employed as a kind of musical instrument.
When the heap of tamales is dedicated to the gods by the
shamans, some of the people are appointed to blow into
such shells five times in the daytime and five times at
night. This is done as a signal to all the gods. After
the feast the shells are carried to Mesa del Nayarit, where
they remain through the wet season, to be afterwards
brought back again for the next feast of the same kind.
They are kept in Mesa del Nayarit in a god-house.
According to tradition, the Chichimecas brought them
first from that part of the coast where San Bias is to-day."

1 Putnam Anniversary Volume 1909, p. 226.

S2 This mosaic recalls the beautiful Haliotisivh&y of Japanese artists.
3:1 Mem, A'ner. Mns. Nat. Hist., iii. ; Anthropology, ii., 1900.

50 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

Lumholtz was unable to procure any shell that had
actually been used at the feast, but he found one in the
god-house of the Sun (Tayau') in Teaka'ta, which,
according to his informants, was smaller than those used.
The species is Murex (Phyllonotus] radix Gmelin, from
the South Pacific Ocean, west coast of America. In
Huichol it is called Ku'ra. Much difficulty was ex-
perienced in buying the specimen ; the man who had
deposited it, and who was one of Lumholtz' party, at first
absolutely refused to part with it. Although left some
years ago, it still remained to him a valuable prayer for
life. Through the acquirement of this specimen, which
was the only one seen in the god-houses, Lumholtz
learned of the interesting custom of blowing into shells
just related. The natural markings on this shell sym-
bolize to the Huichols grains of corn and water.

Probably the most remarkable occurrence of -the use
of shell-trumpets in the New World is afforded by
Mexico. Von Martens84 refers to the finding, by Seler, of
prehistoric trumpets made from Fasciolaria gigas9* and
Turbinella scolywius from the Caribbean Sea, and Fascio-
laria princeps from the Pacific Ocean, in several parts of

Mexico.

From ancient Mexican manuscripts we learn that

conch-shell trumpets entered largely into the religious
ceremonial of the Aztecs.

In Seler's description of Codex Vaticanus, No. 3,773,
reference is made to the blowing of shell-horns in the
temples at midnight, as a signal for the priests to arise
and mortify themselves, to sing, and then go in procession
to the bath.86

84 Von Martens, op. cit., p. 485.

8 6 Probably F. gigantea is meant here.

86 Edward Seler, "Codex Vaticanus, No. 3,773 (Codex Vaticanus B),
an old Mexican pictorial manuscript in the Vatican Library," Berlin and
London, 1902-3, English translation by A. H. Keane.

Shell- Trumpets and tJieir Distribution. 5 1

In the same work and elsewhere mocauani, the Fasting
Man, Ruler of the Nineteenth Day-count quiauitl, "Rain,"
is figured blowing a conch-shell and associated with Tona-
tiuh, the Sun God.87

According to Sahagun and other authorities the
ancient Mexicans held a special festival once or twice a
year, on the day Nahui Ollin, in honor of Tezcatlipoca
Lord of the Night, etc. At noon on each of the four days
preceding this festival, conch-shells were blown by the
priests, whereupon everybody, great and small, old and
young, gashed their tongues and ears, and presented the
the blood to the Sun — " doubtless," says Seler, " with the
intention thereby to give it strength to resume its course
in the usual way."88 The linking together of ear-piercing
and the use of shell-trumpets in this ceremony is of con-
siderable significance.

It is important to note, also, the remarkable resem-
blance to the Minoan use of the conch-shell trumpet in sum-
moning the divinity. (See p. 33). An even more striking
parallel is found in the Babar Is. (Malay Archipelago),
where the sun-god is called down to accept offerings by
means of a Triton- shell.89

In the Mexican pictorial manuscript — Codex Maglia-
becchiano — in the Florentine Biblioteca Nazionale is an
illustration showing XocJiipilli^ called by Seler the God
of Flowers and Food Supplies, being carried in procession
preceded by a priest blowing a corich-shell trumpet.90
(See/*y§-. 6 on plate facing p. 52.)

87 Seler, op. cit,, p. 185, fig. 393, and sheets 28 and 94. The shell is
probably Fasciolaf-ia gigantea.

ss Seler, op. cit., p. 186. Zelia Nuttall, "A Penitential Rite of the
Ancient Mexicans." Arch. & Ethnol. Papers of Peabody Afzts., vol. i., No.
7, 1904, p. 4.

89 I am indebted to Mr. W. J. Perry for this information.

90 Seler, op. «?., p. 162, fig. 363. The shell looks like a reversed Cassis
cornuta. This species is common to the West Indies, Pacific Islands, etc.,
and is used as a trumpet in Papua and other Pacific Islands.

52 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

Further illustrations of the use of the shell-trumpet by
the Aztecs are seen in Codex Borgia 14, where Tepeyollotli,
the Heart of the Mountains, God of the Caves, is figured
blowing the shell-horn, and in Codex Vaticanus, No. 3,7/3,
sheet 22, where the same god wears the shell-horn as a
breast ornament and a second horn lies before him at the
threshold of the temple.91

In the Codex Vaticanus and elsewhere the Mexican
Moon God, Tecciztecatl, is represented in association with
a large conch-shell as its symbol. This appears either on
the brow of the god or at the back of the neck. As the
emblem of the moon the shell also appears with the
figure of a man holding in his hand a blood-stained agave-
leaf spike, or merely a hand holding a bone dagger and
agave-leaf spike, emerging from the mouth — the God in
the shell — which might have reference to the waters being
pent up, or possibly to different phases of the moon. The
Rain God, Tlaloc, is thus seen at the mouth of the shell,
or emerging from it, holding lightning in both hands.
(See Figs. 2 — 5 on plate facing.)

The snail-shell was also brought into association by
the Aztecs with conception, pregnancy and birth ; for, as
the interpreter of the Codex Telleriano-Remensis says :
" asi como sale del hueso el caracol, asi sale el hombre del
vicntre de su madre."

The Moon God is thought by Seler to bear this name
" perhaps on the one hand because he has his phases, at
times withdrawing half or altogether into his shell." But
on the other hand — and this is what the interpreters
lay stress upon — it seems as if he owed this name to the
relation in which the moon stands towards women, to the
influence which it exercises on the bodies of women. In

<J1 Seler, op. cit., p. 103, figs. 295, and p. 105, sheet 22. Here the shell
is like that of the Fasting-man, i.e., Fasciolaria gigantea.

AZTEC PICTURE-WRITINGS (AFTER SKLKK).

(1) Conch-shell with apex replaced by snake's head. Codex Vaticanus B66.

(2) The God shut in the House. Codex Vaticanus No. 3773.

(3) The Rain God shut in the Shell. Codex Bologna 8.

(4) The God concealed in the Shell. Codex Borgia 8.

(5) The God enclosed in the Shell. Codex Bologna 4.

(6) Aztec priest blowing the Shell-trumpet. Codex Magliabecchiano xiii., 3, f. 35

Shell-Trumpets and tJieir Distribution. 53

fact the bond of connexion between the moon and these
shells is the ancient association of both with women
which grew up in the Old World somewhere in the region
of the Red Sea.

The remarkable identity in the Hindu and Mexican
use of shell-trumpets in temple worship and harvest rites,
and the association of the conch-shell with the God of the
Moon, has been pointed out in a previous article."-'

The Chank (see Frontispiece, Fig. 5) is one of the two
important symbols associated by Hindus with Vishnu
and his many avatars or incarnations. Siva, also, is
sometimes represented holding the chank. Such an
association is of peculiar interest when one considers the
worship of the chank in the daily liturgy of the Brahmans.
Taking the shell in his hand, the Brahman recites the
following prayer : —

" At the mouth of this shell is the God of the Moon,
on its sides is Varuna, on its back Prajapati, and on its
apex, the Ganges, the Sarasvati, and all the other sacred
rivers of the three worlds in which they make ablutions
according to the command of Vasudeva.93 In this chank
is the chief of the Brahmans (Brahmendra or Brahmana-
spati). This is why we worship the sacred chank. Glory
to thee, sacred shell, blessed by all the gods, born in the
sea, and formerly held by Vishnu in his hand. We adore
the sacred chank and meditate upon it. May we be filled
with joy !

" I offer (to the chank) everything needful for wor-
ship— perfumes, rice and flowers."94

In India the moon is believed to preside over the
growth of crops and produce, and in certain places, as

02 Jackson, "The Aztec Moon-cult and its relation to the Chank-cult
of India." Munch. Memoirs (Lit. and Phil. Soc.), vol. 60, pt. ii., 1916.
91 One of the names of Krishna.
;'4 Hornell, "The Sacred Chank of India/' 1914.

54 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

already stated in previous pages, chank-trumpets are
employed in connection with harvest rites.

In the above prayer, and in the harvest rites, are
thus embodied the very elements which make up the
moon-cult of the Aztecs. Associated with the chank we
have (a), the Gocl of the Moon, and (/?), Varuna, the Hindu
god of the waters and of the west quarter, who is
worshipped as one of the guardian deities of the earth,
and in times of drought and famine. He is represented
in paintings as a white man seated on Makara, a mythical
crocodile. This god recalls Tlaloc, the Mexican Rain
God, who is sometimes associated with the crocodile, and,
as previously mentioned, is depicted as emerging from
the conch-shell. (c\ Prajapati, " the father of all creatures,"
a personification of the sun, is emblematical of creation
and birth. The snail or conch-shell, as we have seen,
was also associated with conception and birth by the
Mexicans.

The offerings made to the chank of the fruits of the
earth ; the harvest rites accompanied by conch-shell
music ; and the use of shell-trumpets in Hindu temple
worship, have their counterparts in Mexican manuscripts
in the figure of the God of Flowers and Food Supplies
being carried in procession preceded by a priest blowing
a conch-shell trumpet, and in references to the blowing
of conchs in the temples at midnight as a signal for the
priests to arise and mortify themselves, to sing, and then
to go in procession to the bath.

In India both the ordinary and the rare and highly
prized sinistral forms of the chank are employed in
temple-worship, and it is not a little curious to find that
in the Mexican pictures both forms are also shown. It is
quite possible that here, as in India, the sinistral form
may have had a special significance.

Slicll-Truinpets and tJieir Distribution. 55

It is altogether inconceivable that people so far apart
as India and Mexico could have independently associated
the conch-shell with the moon and adopted it as the
symbol of their Moon God, in addition to using it as a
trumpet, and one may justly conclude that we have here
definite proof of the transmission of an element of culture
from the Old to the New World.

If any further evidence is needed regarding the simi-
larity in the moon-cult of these two people, it is provided
by the fact that the ancient Mexicans, like the Hindus,
regarded what we call the " Man in the Moon " as a rabbit,
and explained the present fainter brightness of the moon
by the myth that the gods flung a rabbit in the face of
the moon? which originally shone as brilliantly as the sun.
Strangely enough Dr. Seler points out this fact in his
description of the Codex Vaticanus, but makes no further
comment.

In Aztec picture-writings the moon is figured — usually
as a nasal crescent of bone with a rabbit seated in a watery
field— beside the so-called "Goddess of Filth "—the old
Huaxtec Earth Goddess.

The "God in the Shell" idea, i.e., the curious belief in the
presence of gods, spirits, or human beings, indwelling in
shells is remarkable for its wide-spread occurrence. Forste-
mann, in his discussion of the " Tortoise and Snail in
Maya Literature"95 ventures to connect the snail with the
winter solstice ; the tortoise with the summer solstice. In
the Dresden Maya manuscript, he informs us " the sea
snail appears very curiously in page 37^. Here it lies in
the water and appears to be in the act of giving birth to a
tiny person (female?)/' This seems to bear some relation
to the ancient myth that Venus was born of the froth of
the sea, within a shell, which transported her to Cyprus.

as Bureau of American Ethnology, Bull. 28, 1904, pp. 423-430.

56 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

The Dresden Codex also shows the snail associated with
the gods of birth, and of the moon (the god D, of
Schellas), of death, and of the sun, and in the month Mol,
the eighth of the Maya year. It is widely acknowledged
that the snail is the symbol of birth among the Central
American people.90

According to Spinden,97 " the snail, so-called, is repre-
sented in combination with the human form much more
often than the tortoise, and occurs not only on the build-
ings at Chitchen Itza •. . but also in the codices and on
objects of minor art such as pottery. The word " snail "
is commonly used, but there are no means of telling
whether the shell represented belongs to the snail or to
some other mollusc. According to Tozzer and Allen the
shell is probably that of Fasciolaria gigantca, which is the
largest known American shell and is found along the coast
of Yucatan." This writer gives a series of representations
of anthropomorphic figures, consisting of the human form
combined with a shell, taken both from Aztec and Maya
manuscripts. One of these, from the Peresianus Codex,
shows a personage called by Schellas, God N, the God
of the End of the Year. Another authority, Dr. Seler,
however, refers to him as the Old Bald-headed God, and
suggests that he governed the moon. " He is probably
related/' says Spinden, " to God D, the principal Roman-
nosed God. Usually, but not always, this God N wears a
large shell from which the upper part of his body seems
to emerge." It will be recalled that Tecciztecatl, the Moon
God of the Mexicans, is represented in the Codex Vati-
canus No. 3,773, with a conch-shell on his brow ; in the
Codex Telleriano Remensis the shell appears at the back

'•"'• Forstemann, op. cit., pp. 428-429.

97 "A Study of Maya Art," Mem. Fcabody Aluseutn of Ainer.
Archaol. an d Eth no/., vol. vi., 1913, p. 83.

Shells-Trumpets and their Distribution. 57

of the neck of the same god. Dieseldorff excavated at
Chama, Guatemala, several pieces of pottery with painted
or incised representations of the Shell God.9* At Chitchen
Itza, sculptured figures on buildings often have a shell
attached to the body. Spinclen" informs us that " in
the lower right hand corner of the .Foliated Cross at
Palenque is a shell in which is partially concealed the
Long-nosed God. From the hands of this god issues a
plant amid the leaves of which is a face resembling that
of the Maize God. The shell in this connection probably
appears as an indication of water" (see Fig. 2 on plate
facing p. 58). Tlaloc, the Mexican Rain God, is similarly
represented in Aztec codices, possibly signifying the dry-
ing up of the waters.

Two interesting figures of the association of the Moon
God with the conch-shell are given in the Dresden Maya
manuscript.100 In one (Fig. I, plate facing p. 58), the
Roman -nosed God ( = D of Schellas) emerges from
the shell under the water, whilst the Long-nosed God
( = B of Schellas), identified by some with Ckac, the Rain
God of the four quarters and the equivalent of Tlaloc
of the Mexicans, is seen on the surface of the water
holding a fish in one hand. This figure seems to show
the close association of these two Maya gods. In
other representations we find these gods merging
the one into the other ; and in one case Cliac, the
Rain God, appears as the Moon God. Dr. Elliot Smith
claims101 that the Maya Chac is the American form of the

*a For figures see Spinden, op. (if., p. 84, f. io8b ; Seler, Zeit. fiir
EthnoL, 42, p. 284, f. 1000.

9 Spinden, op. cit., p. 84.

100 See Spinden, op. cit., \\ 83. f. 108 c & d ; Forstemann, op. cit.,
p. 428, f. I05a; Seler, Z. fur /f., 42, p. 284, f. 998 and 9990.

" Precolumbian Representations of the Elephant in America,"
Nature, December 16, 1915.

58 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

Vedic Indra. He tells me that in the later Vedas Indra
took over a number of the attributes which originally were
associated with Soma, who in addition to being a drink-
god, /.£., an Asiatic Dionysos, was also a moon-god. Indra
also assumed many of the characters of Varuna ; and it
affords further confirmation of the identity of Indra with
Chac or 77<?/0£to find the same elements of confusion also
in America. Each divinity is presented in Maya codices
in numerous phases closely associated with the serpent,
the tortoise, or the conch-shell, recalling forcibly the
several incarnations of the popular Hindu deity, Vishnu.
The fundamental conception is, in fact, typically Brahmani-
cal. In order to make this quite clear let us turn to the
points of similitude which we find in India. The avataras
["descents"] of Vishnu are ten in number, the first of
which, Matsya^vs fish, is said to have reference to the uni-
versal deluge from the waters of which Vishnu in this
form recovered the Vedas, or Sacred writings of the
Hindus.102 In a work published in 1731, Picart108 gives a
picture and the following interesting and quaint account
of Vishnu s exploits : " He first assumed the shape of a
fish, in order to search for the Vedam at the bottom of the
sea, whither it had been carried by an evil Genius, who
had forc'd it away from the Deutas. Wistnou at the urgent
request of the Daitas, plung'd into the sea, kill'd this evil
Genius, and returned with the Vedam, which he found in a
shell. The figure [see Fig. I, plate facing p. 62] represents
Wistnou coming out of the fish, whose form he had assum'd ;
his two right hands hold the Ved(U>i open, and a ring ; his
two left, a sabre, and the shell in which the Vedam was

10-2 Bird wood, "The Industrial Arts of India,'" Part I, p. 57 (South
Kensington Museum Handbook).

los n, Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the several Nations of the
known World,5' vol. iii., 1731, p. 415, pi. 101.

MAYA SCULPTURE AND PICTURE-WRITINGS.

(1) Conch-shell associated with Maya deities. Dresden MS 38!). (after Forstemann).

(2) The God in the Shell. Tablet of the Foliated Cross at Palenqu'e (after Spinden).

(3) The Tortoise associated with Maya deities. Codex Cortes igb (after Seler).

Shell-Trumpets mid their Distribution. 59

inclos'd ; the monster is seen headless at his feet." Other
accounts relate how Vishnu, as Krishna (the eighth incar-
nation), " went down to the infernal regions, and brought
back his six brothers whom Kansa [Raja of the Bhojas]
had killed ; and then he killed the demon Pancliajana who
lived in the chank shell, which he ever afterward used as
a war trumpet." I04

In the " Bhagavad-Gfta," a Sanskrit philosophical
poem, we find Krishna s conch-shell trumpet called Pan-
chajanya.105

An embossed design on the cover of Thomson's
translation of the " Bhagavad-Gita," illustrates one of
the many Hindu conceptions of the fish incarnation of
Vishnu, and shows the demon in the mouth of the shell ;
one of Vishmis hands is empty. In the illustration
taken from Picart Vishnu holds the chank in one of
his hands. The cutting off of the apex of the shell, re-
presented in this picture by the demon's head,10<; illustrates
the method adopted in India for the manufacture of chank-
shell trumpets, which are always blown from the end.

The second avatar of Vishnu is the Kurma, or tortoise.
The gods, aware of their mortality, desired to discover
some elixir which would make them immortal. To this
end, Mount Meru was cast into the sea, Vishnu then
plunged in, in the form of a tortoise, and supported on his
back the mountain, round which the Naga or snake,
Vdsuki, was twisted, so that the gods seizing his head, and
the demons his tail, twirled the mountain till they had

104 Birdwood, op. cil., pp. 74-5.

1 "•"• '• The Bhagavad-Gita," translated by J. Cockburn Thomson, Hert-
ford, 1855.

"•"'• In the Codex Yaticanus, B. 66, the conch-shell is shown with the
head of a snake for its apex — probably a variant of the same idea (see /''/;>•. I,
plate facing p. 52).

60 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

churned the ocean,107 out of which was then produced the
atnrita^ or water of life, and thirteen other gems.108 A
variant of this account is given by Picart (pp.cit., p. 415)
who says that " using this serpent as a cable, they lifted
up the mountain, and afterwards let it fall again, till they
at last forc'd this haughty element [the sea] to restore all
the wealth which had made it so proud." (See Fig. 2,
plate facing p. 62).

Turning to the Dresden Maya manuscript we find, on
page 373, a representation of the Old Bald-headed God
(the Moon God) with the shell of the tortoise on his
back100 — an incarnation, in fact, of the god as a tortoise.
But an even more striking picture is seen on p. igb of
the Codex Cortes. The illustration there given110 shows
the tortoise on the top of a churn-like structure about
which is coiled an object resembling a snake (Seler calls
it a rope, but it appears to possess scales). On the left
side of the central object are two dark coloured gods or
demons holding on to the snake ; on the right side, simi-
larly employed, stands the Long-nosed God (= Chac,
the Rain God), and another indefinite personage. Appa-
rently seated on the back of the tortoise is another God
(? Roman-nosed God) who also holds the snake. In
describing this picture, Seler calls attention to the tortoise
being marked with a hieroglyphic sign which occurs in
the 7««fl/-name ;vir and yax-kin, and which perhaps
signifies " tree " or " wood." He further states : " It [the

107 C. F. Oklham, "The Sun and the Serpent," London, 1905, p. 58,
regards " the churning of the ocean," alluded to in the '* Mahabharata" as
" an allegorical description of sea borne commerce in its early days " (quoted
by Dr. G. Elliot Smith, ''The Migrations of Early Culture," Manchester,
1915, p. 82).

108 Birdwood, op. cit., p. 57; Thomson, " Bhagavad-Gita," p. 147.
100 Seler, Zcit. fiir EthnoL, 42, p. 51, f. 738.

llu Seler, Z.fiirE., 42, p. 48, f- 724-

Shell-Trumpets and tJieir Distribution. 61

tortoise] figures there in the centre of a remarkable
ceremony in which a number of gods pull a rope up and
down to which is fastened the element Kin 'Sun.'"
(See Fig. 3, plate facing p. 58).

No one who carefully and conscientiously examines
this remarkable picture can have any doubt that it repre-
sents the tortoise incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

In these and other similar designs in the Maya manu-
scripts we cannot fail to recognise the results of an infiltra-
tion into America of somewhat confused ideas concerning
Vishnu, the popular Hindu god, who, as already pointed
out, is intimately associated with the conch-shell trumpet
(the sacred chank) and the tortoise, among other objects.
Jt is inconceivable that ideas of so arbitrary a nature could
have arisen independently in India and Central America.
That the fundamental conception of the Maya pictures is
the same as the Indian cannot be denied. They were
certainly inspired by ideas brought from India, which
again were probably founded upon elements of culture
from Western Asia and the Mediterranean. As is well-
known, one of the Babylonian myths relates how the
people of Ancient Chaldaea received their early knowledge
of sciences and arts of all kinds from the fish-god, Ea or
Oannes, who rose from out of the Erythraean Sea. But
it is to the island of Crete we must turn for the earliest
use of the shell-trumpet ; there it was a regular accom-
paniment of Minoan temple-worship.

The Maya evidence, only a part of which is dealt with
here, thus confirms what has already been said concerning
the ideas expressed in the Aztec picture writings, i.e, the
use of shell-trumpets in temple-worship and the association
of the conch-shell with the god of the moon in India and
Central America.

It is altogether incredible that merely by chance the

62 Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

Maya or Aztec artist could have invented such striking
identities, without any knowledge of the fantastic designs
invented in India.

In the Introduction Dr. Elliot Smith has explained
how ideas of fertility, the giving of life and resurrection
grew up in association with the cowrie. This chapter has
revealed how all of these attributes have been transferred
to the shell-trumpet not only in Asia, but also in America.
In the latter country such conceptions would be utterly
meaningless unless it be admitted that they were intro-
duced from the Old World.

In Japan we find similar evidence of the transmission
of the same Indian ideas, but here owing to the proximity
of their source the confusion of the elements is not so
pronounced. In a picture (Fig. 3, plate facing) given by
Picart (pp. «?., vol. iv., pt. ii., 1735, pi. 138), which repre-
sents a group in the Temple of Osacca, we see expressed
the identical conception of the fish incarnation of Vishnu.
Picart describes this group as follows : " Canon,111 called
by some Travellers, the Son of Amidas, presides over the
Waters, and the Fish. He is the Creator of the Sun and
the Moon. This Idol, according to the Representation of
him,112 has four arms, like his Father, is swallowed up by a
Fish, as far as his Middle, and is crowned with Flowers.
He has a Sceptre in one Hand, a Flower in another, and
a Ring in the third ; the fourth is closed, and the Arm
extended. Over against him, there is a Figure of an
humble Devotee, one half of whose Body lies concealed
within a Shell. There are four other Figures at a little
Distance on an Altar, each of them with their Hands
closed like humble Suppliants, from whence, as from so
many Fountains, flow Streams of Water."

11 T J. J. Rein ("Japan," 1884, p. 458) refers to this well-known and
popular deity as Kuwanon (pronounced Kannon) the goddess of mercy.

1 12 Picart bases his account on the " Embassies of the Dutch to Japan."

INCARNATIONS OF INDIAN AND JAPANESE GODS (after Picart).

(1) Fish avatar of Vishnu, India.

(2) Tortoise avatar of Vishnu, India.

(3) Canon, a god of Japan.

(4) The Creator of the Universe, according to the Japanese.

Shell- Trumpets and their Distribution, 63

On plate 140 in the same work Picart gives a repre-
sentation of the supreme Deity who, according to the
Japanese, created the world. The picture (Fig. 4, plate
facing p. 62), taken from a group at Miaca, clearly
illustrates the second incarnation of Vishnu, viz., Kurma,
the tortoise. As described by Picart, the Creator of
the Universe, who is black and wears a pointed crown,
is seated upon the top of a large tree trunk, which is fixed
on the back of a tortoise, as in the Indian picture. He
has four arms and hands, with a ring in one, a sceptre in
another, a flower in a third, and in the fourth a vessel or
little fountain of water. A serpent is coiled twice round
the trunk. Two demons, one with the head of a dog, the
other with the horns of a stag, are holding the serpent
near the head, while the tail portion is held by two Kings
of Japan, one of whom has four faces, like Brahma, and a
Sin, or demi-god. From the water, on which the tortoise
seems to lie, appears a Sun half risen, in the form of a
bearded man crowned with rays. With his right hand he
seems to goad the tortoise forwards, and holds divers
goads in his left.

The identity of this conception with that of India is
patent ; but it is of interest in comparison with the Maya
design because the elephant-headed god (Chac) of the
latter corresponds to the stag-headed dragon in Japan.11"

One point of peculiar interest is the association of
the Sun, which, as we have seen, is one of the chief objects
of importance in the Maya picture.

How and when these distinctly Indian ideas reached
Japan is not easy to define. They may have reached there
with Buddhism, which, it is stated,114 entered that country

lia G. Elliot Smith, "Dragons and Rain Gods," to be published in
the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library.

114 Rein, op. dt., pp. 219 & 448.

64 Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

in the middle of the 6th century A.D., and in due course
took the Shinto gods into its system, just as it had already
absorbed the numerous deities of Brahmanism.

Returning to America we find some further evidences
of the prevalence of the " Shell-God " idea. LovelP15
informs us that " Dr. Troost, in an account of some
ancient remains discovered by him in Tennessee, mentions
the finding of a large conch shell (Cassis flammed], with
the interior whorls and columella removed, so that nothing
remained but the exterior portion of the shell, which was
open in front, and in it was placed a rudely shaped idol,
in the form of a kneeling human figure, made of clay with
pounded shells. It was ploughed up in the Sequatchy
Valley."

Long, in his " Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky
Mountains," i823,11(i tells us that the Omahas possessed a
sacred shell which they transmitted from generation to
generation. Its origin was quite unknown. A skin lodge was
built for it, and a man appointed as guardian, who resided
in the lodge. It was placed on a stand and never allowed
to touch the earth, and was concealed from sight by a
number of mats made of skins plaited. The whole formed
a large package, from which tobacco, roots of trees, and
other objects were suspended. No one dared to open all
these coverings in order to see the shell, for if they
attempted to look upon it they were struck with instant
and total loss of sight. The sacred shell was taken by
the Indians on all their national hunts, and was also
consulted as an oracle before any expedition was made
against an enemy. The medicine men seated themselves
round the sacred lodge, the lower part of which was

115 Lovell, " Edible British Mollusca," 1884, pp. 198-9, quoting Trans.
Atncr. Etluiol. Soc.^ vol. I., pp. 360-1 ; vol. iii., pp. 360 & 364.

11 fi As quoted in " Flint Chips," by E. T. Stevens, pp. 448-449.

SJiell-Trumpets and tJieir Distribution. 65

thrown up like a curtain, and the external mat was
carefully removed from the shell, that it might have air.
Some of the consecrated tobacco suspended from the
coverings of the shell was taken by the medicine men
and smoked to the " Great Medicine." During this
ceremony everyone listened most attentively, hoping to
hear a sound proceed from the sacred shell. At length
someone imagined he heard a noise resembling a forced
expiration of air from the lungs, and this was considered
a favourable omen, and the tribe prepared for the expe-
dition, confident of success. If, on the contrary, the shell
obstinately remained silent, the result of the expedition
was regarded as doubtful.

A. P. Niblack, in his work on "The Coast Indians of
Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia"117 gives
some interesting details of the traditions and myths of the
THngit, Haida, and Tsimshian tribes of the north-west
coast, in which are expressed many ideas concerning the
religion and cosmogony of these people. Among the Haida,
it was believed, the creator of all things and the bene-
factor of man was the great raven called Ne-kil-stlas.
This mythical personage was no ordinary bird, but had
many human attributes, and was capable of transforming
himself into anything in the world. The stories of his
adventures in peopling the world are numerous. One of
the most interesting of these stones is given by Niblack,
as follows : " According to the Haida and Kaigani the
first people sprang from a cockle-shell {Cardimn corbis,
Mast.). Ne-kil-stlas became very lonely and began to look
about him for a mate, but could find none. At last he
took a cockle-shell from the beach, and marrying it, he
still continued to brood and think earnestly of his wish
for a companion. By and by he heard a faint cry in

117 Report U.S. Nat. Mus., 1887-8 (1890), p. 378.

66 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

the shell, which gradually became louder till at last a little
female child was seen, which by degrees grew to be a
woman and married the raven. From this union came all
the Indians of the region."

Thus preserved in the traditions of these people is the
identical conception which we have already observed in
pictorial manuscripts of the Mayas — the idea of the birth
of a female child from a sea-shell. Such a striking simi-
larity can hardly have been the result of accident. Turn-
ing to Ellen C Semple's interesting book on " Influences
of Geographic Environment" (London, 1911, p. 395) we
find that these widely-separated peoples — the Haidas and
Tlingits of British Columbia and Alaska and the Mayas
of Yucatan — have been linked together on other cultural
grounds.

In the Pacific Islands, especially in Samoa, there exists
a persistent belief in the presence of gods in conch-shell
trumpets. Some of the information relating to this idea,
extracted from Turner's interesting account of Samoa,
has already been given on an earlier page, where also
allusion has been made to the use of shell-trumpets at
moon ceremonies. Other gods, Turner informs us, are said
to be incarnate in the cuttle-fish, as well as in the large
white " cowry," (Ovulum ovum} ; while Nonia, a village god,
was supposed to be present in the cockle-shell. Concern-
ing the origin of man some curious ideas are expressed in
the traditions of these people. It is believed that man is
formed from a species of mussel and that he casts his
skin like shell-fish ; from a man called Ariari (to appear)
and a woman sprang the cuttle-fish and the race of men.
Another of their traditions is that Ln had a wife, Gaogao-
o-le-tai (expanse of sea), who had a son also called Lii
and she next brought forth a lot of all kinds of shell-fish.118

Codrington,in his "Melanesians" (Oxford, 1891, p. 26)

118 Turner, op. cit. , pp. 8, 9, 12, etc.

SJicll- Trumpets and tlieir Distribution. 67

tells that in the Xe\v Hebrides there is a tradition that
the first woman sprang from a cowry-shell ; there is also
a family named after the Octopus.

Nor is this strange " Shell-God " idea confined to the
Far East. There is the ancient legend of the birth of
Venus from a sea-shell. The representation of shells on
the coins of ancient nations119 affords evidence of the
prevalence of similar ideas in the Mediterranean region.
Even in the Christian architecture of this city the same
curious symbolism is depicted. In an account on the
"Misereres in Manchester Cathedral,"120 the Rev. E. F. Letts
figures and describes a series of elaborate carvings under
the stall seats portraying numerous fabulous animals in a
variety of ingenious and grotesque forms. Included
amongst them is one carving of peculiar interest from its
bearing upon the matter under discussion. This singular
subject is to be seen on the under-master's stall, and re-
presents a mermaid or female child emerging from a
conch-shell and in the act of thrusting a spear down the
throat of a terrible horned dragon, whose agony is well
represented in the convolutions of its tail. Letts says :
" I find the subject of children emerging from shells and
fighting beasts is a common one, and represents purity
conquering sin."

Another remarkable association of the conch-shell
and the dragon is to be seen as the crest over a coat of
arms of Robert Venables, of Antrobus, 1663 (also 1566
and 1580); but here it is the dragon which is emerging
from the mouth of the shell. This is figured by W. H.
Rylands in a communication on " Some Cheshire Heraldic
Documents, from the Ashmole Manuscripts."121

110 The shells on these coins undoubtedly represent sacred objects and
the symbol a cult.

120 Trans. Lane. andChesh. Antiq. Soc., vol. iv., 1886, p. 142.

121 Trans. Hist. Soc. Lane, and Ches., vol. Ixii. (N.S. vol. xxvi.).,
Liverpool, 1911, p. 122.

68 SJiells as evidence of the Migrations,

In his lecture upon " Dragons and Rain Gods," which
is now in course of publication in the Bulletin of the John
Ry lands Library, Dr. Elliot Smith called attention to the
fact that the American "long-nosed " or elephant-headed
god (which represents the Indian Indrd) has also the same
attributes as the dragon in China and India. The "long-
nosed " god is sometimes represented emerging from the
shell, like the dragon of the Variables coat of arms.

Regarding the supposed relations between the moon
and shells, the following remarks, given by Johnston, in
his "Introduction to Conchology," are not without interest.
He tells us that " among the earlier naturalists it seems to
have been a prevalent belief, that oysters and other bi-
valves were fat and in season at the full moon, and lean
and out of season at the new moon." On this point,
Cicero (" De Div.," ii. 14) states : " Ostreis et conchylits
omnibus contingit, ut cumiuna pariter crescant, pariterque
decrescant." Gellius tells the following story : " The poet
Annianus, on his Falerian estate, was wont to spend the
time of vintage in a jovial and agreeable way ; and he
had invited me and several other friends to pass those
days with him. When we were at supper there, a large
quantity of oysters was brought from Rome ; but when
they were set before us, they proved, though many,
yet all poor and thin. The moon (remarked Annianus)
is now in truth waning; and on that account the oysterr
like other things, is lean and void of juice. We asked
what other things waste when the moon is old ? Do not
you remember (said he) what Lucilius says ?

' Luna alit ostrea, et implet echinos, maribu fibras

Et pecui addit.'

Those very things which grow with the moon's increase
pine away as it wanes ; the eyes of cats also become
fuller or smaller according to the changes of the moon..

Shell- Trumpets and their Distribution. 69

But that is still more surprising which I have read in
Plutarch, — that the onion becomes green and flourishing
as the moon wastes away, and dries up again while the
moon increases ; and this is the cause, say the Egyptian
priests, why the Pelusians do. not eat the onion ; because
it alone of all potherbs has its turns of diminishing and
increasing contrary to those of the moon." (Johnston, op.
cit.y pp. 336-7). Kirckringius, it is stated, " knew a young
gentlewoman whose beauty depended upon the lunar force ;
insomuch, that at full moon she was plump and handsome,
but in the decrease of the planet so wan and ill-favoured,
that she was ashamed to go abroad, till the return of the
new moon gradually gave fulness to her face, and attrac-
tion to her charms. If this seems strange, it is indeed no
more than an influence of the same kind with that which
the moon has always been observed to have upon shell-
fish, and some other living creatures." He quotes Lucilius,
and the words of Manillas :

" Si submersa fretis, concharum et carcere clausa,

Ad lima? motum variant animalia corpus."
" This opinion," says Johnston, "continued to be for long
a part of the popular creed, and even so late as 1666 it
had in nothing been impaired, for, in the ' Philosophical
Transactions' of that year, travellers to India are solicited
to inquire, ' whether those shell-fishes that are in these
parts plump and in season at the full moon, and lean and
out of season at the new, are found to have contrary con-
stitutions in the East Indies' — a nice question, to which
the answer returned was, ' I find it so here, by experience
at Batavia, in oysters and crabs.'" (Johnston, op. cit., p.
337).

CHAPTER III.

The Geographical Distribution of the use of
Pearls and Pearl-shell.

For many centuries pearls have been objects of
commerce between nations, and from their peculiar
beauty and splendour they have been held in high esti-
mation among- many peoples, civilised and barbarian.
Superstitious reverence in one form or another has also
been accorded them, and they have been considered as
symbols of purity, beauty, and nobility, besides being
regarded as emblematical of conjugal bonds. More
curious still is the fact that for ages pearls or pearl-
shells have been supposed to possess valuable medicinal
qualities, and have been used in medicine, either as a
powder or as one of the chief ingredients of pills, es-
pecially in Oriental countries.

Regarding the origin of pearls many wild and ex-
travagant ideas have been advanced in the past by
different peoples, one of the most curious of these notions
being the belief that they were formed from drops of rain
j falling into the gaping valves of the pearl-shell. This
\ " congealed dew-drop " theory is remarkable for its wide
distribution. It was current among the ancient people of

3 o

n

72 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

the Mediterranean, spreading from there to India, China,
and other places, and was found by Columbus to exist
among the inhabitants of the New World.

In previous papers attention has been called to the
intimate association which exists between the special
appreciation of pearls and the geographical distribution
of elements of a culture, including amongst other things,
the use of shell-purple for dyeing, and of conch-shells for
trumpets. The evidence concerning the spread of these
latter cultural elements has already been given,1 and the
object of this chapter is to present some of the facts
connected with the distribution of the use of pearls and
pearl-shell.

The remarkable manner in which the sources of pearls
and pearl-shell coincide with the distribution of megalithic
structures has been emphasised by Mr. W. J. Perry in his
recently published paper on " The Relationship between
the Geographical Distribution of Megalithic Monuments
and Ancient Mines."2 Some further facts in demonstra-
tion of this are included in the present communication.

When the fashion for pearls and pearl-shell was first
instituted is not known, but the available evidence
suggests that it originated somewhere in the vicinity of
Egypt, if not in Egypt itself. From this centre the
fashion spread to surrounding nations of antiquity, and at
a later time, together with an extraordinary collection of
fantastic practices and beliefs, it was carried far and wide,
eventually reaching the Far East, Oceania, and the New
World. Phoenician influence was undoubtedly largely
instrumental in the distribution of the appreciation of the
pearl, and in the course of trade these ancient mariners
inaugurated extensive pearl-fisheries in many of the places

1 Chapters I. & II.

v Manch, Memoirs (Lit. 6° Phil. Soc.), vol. Ix. (1915), No. I.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 73

they visited. Not only were the highly-prized marine
pearls sought for, but also those from the freshwater pearl
mussels of the family Unionidae.

The Red Sea is probably the most ancient of the
known sources of pearls. Gems from this neighbourhood
were known many centuries before the Christian era, and
the fishery was in a flourishing condition in the time of
the Ptolemies. These pearls are referred to by Strabo,
./Elianus, and other classical writers.3 The most inter-
esting feature in connection with these fisheries is the fact
that the ancient inhabitants of the shores of the Red Sea
were acquainted with an artificial method of producing
pearls. According to the philosopher Apollonius,4 the
inhabitants rendered the sea smooth by flooding it with
oil ; they then dived into the sea and halting alongside
the pearl-oyster they induced it to open by holding out a
case of myrrh before it as a bait. The oyster was then
pierced with a long pin and the liquid which exuded from
the wound was received into an iron block which was
hollowed out in regular holes, where it petrified in regular
shapes, just like the natural pearl. Though the details as
to the method of procedure are scarcely credible, it is
not improbable that the story has some sound founda-
tion, and that attempts were really made at that early
time to stimulate the growth of pearls. This interesting
fact is of some importance in connection with the artificial
production of pearls in India and China, to which atten-
tion is called on later pages.

From the proximity of the Red Sea to Egypt it is not
surprising that the pearl-shell was known to the Egyptians

3 Kun/, and Stevenson, "The Book of the Pearl/' Neiv York, 1908,
pp. I39.vty.

4 Philostratus, " The Life of Apollonius of Tyana," bk. iii., ch. Ivii.
(Edit. Conybeare, vol. i., 1912, p. 343).

74 Sliells as evidence of t/ie Migrations.

at a very early period in their history. In their search
for the Red Sea cowries, and other shells, used as
desirable objects for placing in the graves of the dead in
Pre-dynastic and later times, they must have soon become
familiar with the mother-of-pearl shell.5

According -to Kunz and Stevenson (pp. cit., p. 6) the
pearl-shell was in use as an ornament in ancient Egypt as
early as the vith dynasty. In investigating the ruins of
ancient Thebes, Dr. J, T. Dennis discovered several of
these shells bearing cartouches of that period. In graves
of the Xllth dynasty, Red Sea pearl-shells have been
found engraved with the name of Senusert I.* These
shells are perforated with two holes for wearing as a
pectoral pendant, as in the Pacific Islands and elsewhere.
In the ' pan graves ' of the same period, mother-of-pearl
bracelets occurred made of narrow strips of shell, per-
forated at each end and threaded together, thus forming a
flexible band.7 Similar discoveries have been made in
Nubia.8

The presence of the marine pearl-shell in Egypt has
been looked upon by some authorities as indicating an
early trade with India. On this point Lacouperie9 re-
marks : " Commercial relations between the Kushite
emporia of South Arabia, the West coast of India, and

6 It is of interest to note that the use of cowries is intimately associated
with that of pearls in most of the area occupied by the megalithic culture.

0 W. M. Flinders I'etrie, "Amulets," London, 1914, p. 27, pi. xliv,,
fig. H2rt. An exactly similar specimen, engraved with the same name, from
Rifeh, 1907, is in the Manchester Museum.

7 W, M. Flinders 1'etrie, '• Diospolis I'arva, The Cemeteries of Abadiyeh
and IIu, 1898-9," 1901, p. 46, pi. xl.

54 G. A. Reisner, " The Archaeological Survey of Nubia.'' Report for
1907-08, vol. i., Archaeological Report, Cairo, 1910, p. 54, pi. 7O/'.

9 T. de Lacouperie, " Western Origin of the Early Chinese Civilisation,"
London, 1894, pp. 97-98.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 75

the South as far as Ceylon, were perhaps already opened
at the time of the xilth dynasty of Egypt." But, he
goes on to say, " the proof is not above suspicion. It
consists -of a shell of mother-of-pearl, such as those of
Ceylon, which, inscribed with the cartouche of (Jsurtasen,
was bought in Egypt in 1883 by Professor Sayce. It
may have been engraved long after the reign of that
sovereign." There is no reason, however, to doubt the
authenticity of this specimen in the light of the more
recent discoveries mentioned above, but the evidence of
its Ceylon origin is untrustworthy. As the same species
of pearl-shell inhabits the Red Sea, it is more probable
that this was its true source.

In addition to the mother-of-pearl shell, pearls them-
selves were used by the Egyptians, though from an
examination of representations of the costumes of ancient
Egypt, they do not appear to have been employed to any
great extent in their decorations.10 They are represented
on old Egyptian monuments, and diadems of pearls have
been found from time to time in ancient sarcophagi.
From about 1506 B.C., Egyptian women wore earrings,
generally simple loops of gold, from which hung pendants
of precious stones and pearls. They, likewise, wore neck-
laces made of alternate rows of shells (cowries, etc.), coral,
scarabei, precious stones and pearls. One ornament worn
by both sexes was the gorget, upon which pearls were
embroidered in elaborate patterns.11 It was not, however,
until after the Persian conquest in the fifth century B.C.
that pearls were used extensively. '-

The Egyptians were also familiar with their own local

10 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 6.

11 K. \V. Streeter. "Pearls and Pearling Life," London, 1886, pp.
33-34-

- Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 6.

76 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

freshwater pearl mussels, Aetheria (Nile oyster), Unio, etc.
at a very early period, using their valves as receptacles for
paints, etc., in Pre-dynastic and later times. Whether
they obtained pearls from these is not known, but the
pearly nature of the shells themselves may have led to
their being objects of appreciation. The Aether ice occur
in the Nile as high as the cataracts of Robatas in Upper
Nubia, and are described by Cailliaud, in his " Voyage
a Meroe," as being a common article of food. Their shells
are collected by the natives in order to decorate the tombs
of deceased relatives.™ Perforated discs of this shell were
found in some numbers in a tomb of the XVIIlth dynasty
(grave D 114) at Abydos,14 but whether they were used for
ornamental purposes, such as necklaces or armlets, is
difficult to decide. Judging from their size (diam. 27 mm.)
they would not prove suitable objects for this purpose.
There is no evidence to suggest that they were employed
as a form of currency,

Beyond the reference by Pliny15 to pearl fisheries on
the Mauri tan ian coast — probably inaugurated by the
Phoenicians, who visited West Africa for gold — little is
known of the use and exploitation of pearls in this part
of Africa.

On the east side of the African continent, pearl
fisheries are known south of the Gulf of Aden. According
to Kunz and Stevenson (pp. cit., p. 153) " little information
exists as to the origin of these fisheries. In a paper
published by the Lisbon Geographical Society, January,
1903, Senor Ivens Ferranz states that, according to
.tradition, in remote times the I bo Archipelago, on the

18 Mary Roberts, " Popular History of the Mpllusca," 1851, p. 311.

14 T. Eric Feet Land \V. L. S. Loat, "The Cemeteries of Abyd«->."
pt. iii., 1912-13. 35th Mem. of Egypt Explor. Fund, 1913, p. 30, pi. xii.

15 Pliny, " N.H.," bk. ix., ch. 56.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 77

north-east coast of Portuguese East Africa, was inhabited
by a Semitic colony, which located there to fish for pearls,
and these were carried through the Red Sea to King
Solomon. He adds that there is little doubt that, after
the great emigration which started from the Persian Gulf
in 982 and founded Zanzibar, Kilvva, and Sofala on the
coast, some Arabs engaged in fishing for pearls about the
islands near Sofala."

The evidence of early pearl fishing on the coast of
East Africa is significant in view of the implied association
between megalithic culture and pearls. In the map which
illustrates Mr. Perry's paper (op. cit., p. 10), the presence of
the pearl-shell is not indicated on the coasts of Zanzibar
and Madagascar " two localities which are suggestive when
the presence of megalithic monuments in Rhodesia and
Madagascar is recalled" (p. u). Another important link
is afforded by the discovery of beads made from the shell
of the common Unio or fresh-water mussel (Unto verreauxi)
in graves in the vicinity of Bulawayo, Rhodesia1"

The Persian Gulf has been famous as a source of
pearls from ancient times. A very early origin of pearl
fishing here seems to be indicated by a cuneiform in-
scription on a broken obelisk, erected presumably by a
king of Nineveh, which has been translated by Jules
Oppert, the eminent Assyriologist.17 The fisheries were
well known in the time of Alexander, and are referred to
by Pliny18 as yielding the most valuable pearls. Isidorus
of Charace, a Greek historian, circa 300 B.C., mentions
the pearl fishing in this neighbourhood in his account of
the Parthian Empire, and gives a fanciful story of the
influence of thunderstorms on the breeding of pearls. :;t

0 Kunx and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 513.

17 Ibid., p. 85.

18 Pliny, "N.H.," bk. ix., ch. 54.

1 u Athena-Mis, " Deipnos,'' bk. iii., ch. 46.

78 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

The inhabitants of the Island of Bahrein — the Tylos
of Ptolemy — have been devoted to pearling from time
immemorial, and the fishing to-day is carried on much as
it was 2,000 years ago. This island was in touch with
Chaldean civilization, and one of the traditional sources
of the Phoenicians, and whence came that fish-god who —
according to the Babylonian myth — bore the ark over the
deluge.20

In Persia, pearls were almost certainly known in the
seventh century B.C. ; they are not mentioned in the
extant fragments of ancient literature, but pearl ornaments
of great antiquity have been found among Persian re-
mains. Assyrian and Persian bas-reliefs show that pearls
were used profusely for adornment by the sovereigns and
great personages of those countries. The portraits of
Persian queens on coins and gems commonly show ear-
pendants of pearls.21 Portraits of Sassanian kings show a
pearl pendant of large size hanging from the right ear,
and among Persian nobles it was the custom to wear in
the right ear a golden ornament containing pearls. The
women also wore a ring through the left nostril, upon
which three pearls were strung, and round their heads
was a band with pendent jewels or pearls. The kings of
the Medes and Persians wore bracelets and necklaces of
pearls, and these gems were employed lavishly in their
trappings and equipages. At the present time pearls
play a prominent part in great festivals in Persia."

Among the ancient Persians a solar origin was
attributed to the pearl.23

Babylonian dignitaries and priests, it is stated, wore

20 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., pp. 90 seq.

21 Ibid., pp. 5 and 404.

22 Streeter, op. cit.t pp. 30-31.

23 Ibid.> p. 48.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-sJiell. 79

strings of pearls, most of which no doubt came from the
Persian Gulf fisheries.24 In the ruins of Babylon, however,
no pearls have been found ; the relatively moist soil con-
taining much saltpetre may account for their non-survival
for so many ages.26

According to Kunz and Stevenson (pp. cit., p. 405),
one of the most interesting examples of the use of a pearl
in ancient times is a beautiful prehistoric pearl pin from
Paphos, on the Island of Cyprus, which is mounted with
a large marine pearl measuring 14 mm. in diameter, and
weighing about 70 grains. It is surmounted by a small
fresh-water pearl 4 mm. in diameter.

In excavations made in the Huaran district in Syria,
a number of pearls were found in a rock-cut tomb said to
be of Roman origin. The pearls were still attached to a
bronze wire with which they had been strung. A pearl
pin and a single earring bearing a pearl have also been
recorded from a rock-tomb at Caesarea, in Syria.'26

Pearls were esteemed by the Greeks in the time of
Homer, who appears to allude to them under the name
TpiyXriva (triple drops or beads) in his description of Juno,
in the Iliad, xiv., 183; and in the Odyssey, xviii., 298.
Classical designs of Juno usually show the three pear-
shaped pearls pendent from her ears. The pearls of the
ancient Greeks were obtained probably through the
medium of the Phoenicians, and during the Persian wars
of the fifth century B.C., they doubtless extended their
acquaintance with these beautiful gems.-7

The necklaces and earrings, on the heads of female
divinities, goddesses, and nymphs, represented on Greek
coins from the fifth century B.C., are considered by many

24 Ibid., p. 31.

26 Kunz and Stevenson, op. dt., p. 5.
28 Ibid., p. 406.

27 Ibid., p. 8.

8o Shells (is evidence of the Migrations.

numismatists to be intended to represent pearl orna-
ments.28

Theophrastus, writing about 300 B.C., mentions the
gems, and describes them as the product of shell-fish. In
his day they were valued for necklaces or bracelets.
Piiriy also refers to other Greek writers on the subject.
Like the Persian nobles, Grecian men of rank wore one
pearl earring in the right ear, while the women wore one
in each ear.-9

Interesting evidence of the ancient appreciation of
pearls in the neighbourhood of the Crimea is furnished
by the discovery of gold earrings with pearl centres,
probably of the first half of the third century A.D., in a
tomb close to the site of the ancient town of Chersonesus,
and of earrings and pins set with pearls, from the
neighbourhood of Tiflis. An earring of fourth century
date made of gold wire, on which seven pearls are
threaded, said to have been found on the site of the
ancient Greek colony of Olbia, is of special interest in
view of the fact that the pearls are drilled. Another
interesting find, also of the 4th century A.D., is that of a
brass dress pin with a sphere of amber, surmounted by a
pearl, found near the village of Mzchet Caucasus.80

The custom of wearing a ring, ornamented with
corals, pearls or precious stones, was prevalent among the
fashionable Tartar ladies of Astrakhan, in the i8th cen-
tury. This was worn suspended from the perforated
right nostril, and recalls a similar practice among the
women of Persia (supra> p. 78). :!1

-* Jbid., p. 409.

2!> Streeter, op. <-//., p. 35 ; Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 8.
0 Kun/ and Stevenson, op. cif., p. 410.

31 G. A. Cooke, "System of Universal Geography." London (1801),
vol. i., p. 448.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 8 1

From Greece the admiration for pearls spread to Rome,
where they were known by the Greek word margaritce,
as well as the Roman name unio. According to Pliny
(bk. ix., ch. 59), the Romans used the latter name to
distinguish a pearl of remarkable size. This celebrated
Roman naturalist, who regarded pearls as formed by dew f
or rain falling into the gaping shells of the pearl-oyster,32
tells us that after the surrender of Alexandria, these gems
came into common, and indeed universal, use at Rome ;
but they first began to be used there during the Jugurthan
wars.33

The Romans were deeply affected by pearls, and these
gems took precedence over all others. Roman ladies
wore necklaces and ear-drops of pearls, and dresses were
lavishly covered with these gems. They were worn even
at night that in their sleep the owners might be conscious
of the possession of such valuable jewels. Pliny84 gives us
a graphic description of the pearls and other ornaments
worn by the Roman empress Lollia Paulina at an ordi-
nary wedding entertainment. It was not unusual for the
Romans to adorn their horses and other favourite animals
with splendid necklaces ; and it is said that " Incitatus,"
the favourite horse of the Emperor Caligula, wore a pearl
collar. Pearls also decorated the altars in the Roman
temples, and the furniture of the houses, while their war-
chariots shone with them. Philo Judaeus speaks of the
couches upon which the Romans reclined at meal-times
as being ornamented with tortoise-shell and ivory, and
shining with gold and pearls. He also adds that upon the
couches lay purple coverings embroidered in gold or
pearls. Under successive emperors sumptuary laws were

32 Pliny, "N.H." bk. ix., ch. 54.

33 Ibid., bk. ix., ch. 59.

34 Ibid., bk. ix., ch. 58.

82 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

issued in order to stem the tide of extravagance which
threatened the ruination of all classes. Julius Caesar
issued an edict, prohibiting the use of purple and pearls
to all persons who were not of certain rank, and the latter
also to unmarried women.35

The mother-of-pearl was evidently appreciated in
Northern Italy long anterior to the time of the Roman
Empire, as the shell of the pearl-oyster of Eastern seas
has been found in ancient hut foundations, reported to be
of Neolithic age, near Reggio Emilia.36 This discovery
would seem to indicate very early intercourse with the
advanced culture of the East. Further evidence in
support of this is furnished by discoveries of conch-shell
trumpets and broken Purpura shells in Ligurian caves, to
which attention has been called in the other chapters
of this book.

It is probable that the ancient Hebrews valued pearls
for ornamental purposes, doubtless obtaining them by
commerce with the Phoenicians. It is remarkable, how-
ever, that the Hebrew word, gabish, translated " pearl,"
occurs but once in the Old Testament. Some doubt
exists even here as to the true significance of the word,
some writers claiming that it relates to some other sub-
stance, probably " crystal." In the New Testament and
in the Talmud are to be found frequent references to
pearls, which show how these gems were estimated by
the Jews. Mother-of-pearl is still a commodity of general
traffic in Palestine, where it is carved by the inhabitants
into various religious ornaments.37

85 Lovell, "Edible British Mollusca," 1884, p. 92; Streeter, op. cit.,
pp. 39-40 ; Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit. , p. 9.

36 Mosso, "The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization/' 1910, p. 269,
quoting Colini, Atti della Societa romana d? Aiitropologia, vol. x,, 1904.

S7 Streeter, op. cit., p. 32 ; Kunz and Stevenson, of. cit., pp. 6-7.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 83

Although the pearls used by the ancient people of
the Mediterranean were largely those obtained from the
true pearl-oyster, pearls from other sources seem also to
have been employed. Pliny38 informs us that they used
formerly to be found in the seas of Italy, but more
frequently about the Thracian Bosporus ; they were of a
red colour, and small, and enclosed in a shell-fish known
by the name of" mya." Off the coast of Acarnania they
were obtained from a shell-fish called " pina,"39 but the
pearls were ill-shaped, and of marble hue ; those found
about Cape Actium were better, though of small size.

Pearls have been associated with the name of Britain
from very early times. According to Suetonius, the great
motive of Caesar's expedition into Britain in 55 B.C., was
to obtain its pearls, which were so large .that he used to
try the weight of them by his hand. Pliny 40 confirms
this, saying that Caesar dedicated a breastplate covered
with British pearls to Venus Genetrix, and hung it in her
temple at Rome. The British pearls, doubtless obtained
from the fresh-water pearl-mussel, Margaritana inargari-
tifera, seem to have been regarded by ancient writers as
dull in colour and lustre and inferior to the pearls of the
Orient.

The imperial diadem of the sovereigns of the ancient
Britons, Whitaker remarks, was sometimes encircled with
an ornament of the mussel -pearls, as appears from the
coins which have come down to us.41

That the pearl or pearl-shell was appreciated by the
inhabitants of Britain as early as the Neolithic age seems

33 Pliny, "N.H.," bk. ix., ch. 56.

39 Pearls are frequently obtained from the Piutia-shett at the present
day.

40 Pliny, "N.H.," bk. ix., ch. 57.

41 Whitaker, " History of Manchester," 2nd ed., London, 1773, vol. i. ,
pp. 22 and 342.

84 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

very probable from the discovery of the shell of the
fresh-water pearl-mussel {Margaritana margaritiftrd)
associated with human remains in the sepulchral cave at
Perthi Chwareu, near Llandegla, Denbighshire.4-

The presence of fragments of pearl-shell in the paste
of early hand-made pottery may also be an indication
that the Early Britons considered the shell as auspicious
and consequently adding further value to their product,
analogous to the use in India of lime obtained by burn-
ing both chank and pearl oyster shells. It is significant
how widely spread are both these customs. The shells
of Unio are recorded from North American Indian graves
where they had been placed to serve as food for the dead
during the journey to the land of spirits ; and fragments
of Unio shells were used by the Indians to temper the
clay for pottery. Beads of Unio shell have also been
found in graves in the neighbourhood of Bulawayo,
Rhodesia, as already stated.

An interesting survival of the Greek word r/o/yX»/i/«
(triple drops or beads, i.e., pearls) seems to exist in the
Welsh giain (bead), the name having been carried to
Britain by Phoenician traders.4"' It is well known that the
Phoenicians, after founding many colonies in the
Mediterranean, passed on through the Straits of Gibraltar,
and in course of time probably reached the British Isles.
Here no doubt they became acquainted with the pearls of
the British rivers.

The principal fresh-water pearl fisheries in the British
Isles are those of the Con way River, in North Wales,
where it is supposed Caesar obtained his pearls ; the Irt,
in Cumberland ; the Tay, Earn, and Teith, in Perthshire ;
the Dee, Don, and Ythan, in Aberdeenshire ; the Spey

42 J. W. Jackson, Lancashire Naturalist, Dec., 1913, pp. 321-2.

43 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 8.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 85

and Findhorn, in Inverness-shire ; and the rivers of the
counties of Kerry, Donegal, Tyrone, Wexford, etc., in
Ireland. These fisheries have been described by many
writers from the time of the Venerable Bede (673 — 735
A.D.) to the present day, and allusion has been made to
the prevalent belief in the dew-drop origin of the gems'.

On the continent of Europe the abundance of pearls
in the mussels of the lakes and rivers has also given rise
to many important fisheries. Little is known, however, of
their early history, except that some of these localities
appear to have been exploited by the Romans. It is
probable that some are of an even earlier date, possibly
owing their inauguration to Phoenician influence, as in the
British Isles.

The principal areas where pearl fishing has been
carried on in modern times are France, Germany, Austria,
Scandinavia, Denmark and Russia.

In the east of France the pearl fisheries of the
Vologne, in the department of the Vosges, are of special
interest and have been celebrated for centuries, while in
the western part of the country the pearl mussels have
been exploited in the Adour, the Charente, the Gironde
and tributaries, the Garonne and the Dordogne and their
affluents, and many other streams. In Germany the pearl
fisheries are most important in the streams of the southern
districts, in Bavaria, Saxony and Silesia. In Austria the
fisheries have been prosecuted in the province of Bohemia
from very early times. The fisheries of the Wottawa River
were noted in 1560 and this river has long been known
as " the gold- and pearl-bearing brook." Formerly
along its shores, gold washing was more or less carried on,
as well as the fresh-water pearl-mussel industry. In
Hungary the native pearls have been popular with the
Magyar women from early times, and very many yet

86 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

exist in old Hungarian jewelry. In Denmark no pearl
fisheries now exist ; but three centuries ago the gems
were obtained in the Kolding Fjord, in Jutland. In
Norway most of the rivers and streams, especially on the
west and south-west coast, have been noted for pearls
from the i/th century; while in Sweden, pearl fisheries
were noted, in 1562, by Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of
Upsala. In Russia the pearl mussel is found in many
streams ; it occurs throughout Archangel, in most of the
rivers flowing into the White Sea, Lake Onega, and the
Baltic Sea ; it likewise occurs in the Volga Watershed.
In the government of Archangel pearls have been col-
lected for centuries from the streams flowing into the
White Sea and Arctic Ocean. Middendorff gives us a
detailed account of the Lapland pearl fisheries and relates
that they have been carried on exclusively by the shore
Laplanders ; but owing to the small returns, they have
been neglected in recent times. The pearls obtained are
somewhat dull in colour, which in the opinion of the
fishermen is caused by the mysterious influence of the
copper money which they carry with them. The Tuloma
was formerly a productive river ; its pearls were sold in
Kola, and were sent from there to Archangel to be pierced.
The Tjura also yielded many pearls ; but since a Lap-
lander was drowned while fishing for them, the idea has
spread that the spirit of the river guards the pearls, and
the natives hesitate about seeking them. In the grand
duchy of Finland, in the province of Olonetz, and in the
Baltic Provinces, pearls have been sought after for three
centuries or more. The areas where pearl fishing is
conducted in other parts of Russia — the Volga Watershed,
the Don, the Dnieper, etc. — are indicated on the accom-
panying map.44

44 The above information is mostly extracted from Yon Iles^ling "Die
Perlmuscheln und ihre Perlen," Leipzig, 1859; also Kunz and Stevenson,

of. cit.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 87

In India pearls were known and appreciated many
centuries before Christ. They are frequently mentioned
in Indian mythology, their discovery being attributed to
Krishna, the eighth avatar or incarnation of Vishnu, who
is said to have searched the ocean for these gems and
then carried them to India as a wedding gift to his
daughter Pandaia. The Atharvaveda (at least 500 years
B.C.), alludes to an amulet made of pearls and pearl-shell
used for bestowing long life and prosperity upon young
Brahmanical disciples.45 The two great epics of ancient
India, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, also refer to
pearls, and the former speaks of a necklace of twenty-
seven of these gems, and refers to pearl drillers accom-
panying a great military expedition. Ancient Indian
deities are represented as being adorned with these gems,
and, according to Varahamihira, the Indian astronomer,
the statue of the Sun-god, Mithra, wore a crown upon his
head, and was decked with chain-work of pearls, and
earrings also of pearl. Pearls and diamonds served as
eyes for images of the gods ; they were also employed to
decorate the interior of Buddha's tomb, and shone
upon the beautiful box containing his sacred tooth.
Distinguished Indian women wore purple draperies orna-
mented with pearls, and on great public occasions their
arms were covered with them ; and they even wove them
into their hair.4ti Special esteem seems to have been ac-
corded to rose coloured pearls, for red pearls (Lokitamukti)
form one of the seven precious objects which it was incum-
bent to use in the adornment of Buddhistic reliquaries,
and to distribute at the building of a Dagopa.47

45 See translation by Maurice Bloomfield in " Hymns of the Atharva-
veda," Oxford, 1897, p. 62.

40 Von Hessling, op. dt., pp. 1-2 ; Streeter, op. <v'/., pp. 24-25 ; Kunz
and Stevenson, op. cit., pp. 3-4.

47 Lovell, op. «/., p. 97 ; see also Yule's " Marco Polo,'' ii., p. 203.

88 Shells as evidence of the Migrations,

Notwithstanding their great fame, the pearl fisheries
of India are of small extent. The only resources are the
pearl reefs situated on the Madras coast in the vicinity of
Tuticorin, on the northern shore of the Gulf of Manaar ;
reefs of local importance at Kananur on the Malabar
coast and on the Ratnagiri coast below Bombay ; and the
more important reefs off the coast of Nawanagar, on the
south side of the Gulf of Cutch. The fisheries of the
Madras coast were well known in the time of Ptolemy,
and pearls from this source are alluded to by several
early writers.48

According to Hornell,49 the ancient Tamil classics fur-
nish evidence of the existence of important pearl fisheries,
together with those of chank shells, on the Indian shore
of the Gulf of Manaar. One reference contained in the
" Maduraikkanchi," a Tamil poem, " incidently describes
the ancient city of Korkai, once the sub-capital of the
Pandyan Kingdom and the great emporium familiar to
Greek and Egyptian sailors and traders and described by
the geographers of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. under
the name of Kolkhoi."

"In one passage," Hornell informs us, "the Parawas
are described as men who dived for pearl oysters and for
chank shells and knew charms to keep sharks away from
that part of the sea where diving was being carried on.
Another passage depicts the city of Korkai, then a seaport
at the mouth of the Tambraparni, as the chief town of
the Parawas and the seat of the pearl fishery, with a popu-
lation consisting chiefly of pearl-divers and chank-cutters."

It is of some interest to note that the Parawas to-day
continue as from time immemorial to provide the con-

48 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., pp. 128-9.

40 James Ilornell, "The Sacred Chank of India," Madras, 1914, pp.
42-3 (.Ifadrtrs Fisheries Bulletin, No. 7).

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shelL 89

tingent of divers employed for the pearl and chank
fisheries of the gulf of- Manaar.

I,ii the first century A.D. Argalus, in the neighbour-
hood of Korkai, appears to have been a station where
the Gulf of Manaar pearls were perforated. Here also
were to be purchased fine muslins sprinkled with pearls. ""

According to Kunz and Stevenson (op. cit., p. 131),
two other species of pearl-producing mollusks are collected
.in the Madras Presidency. One of these is a species of
mussel, bright green in colour, known as Mytilus smarag-
dinus, collected from the estuary of the Sonnapore River,
near Berhampore. Small pearls of inferior quality are
found therein, and are sold chiefly for chunam01 and for
placing in the mouths of deceased Hindus. The other
species is the P lacuna placenta — the so-called " window-
glass "shell — which is abundant from Karachi, near the
Baluchistan border, to the Kanara district south of Bom-
bay. It is found also in Pulicat Lake, and in the vicinity
of Tuticorin. Where it occurs in any abundance it is
collected for the sake of the small pearls found therein.
These pearls are highly vajued by the Hindus, in calcined
or powdered form, for medicinal purposes, and especially
for mixing with the betel-nut ; they are also in consider-
able demand for placing in the mouths of deceased Hindus
of the middle class, instead of the sea pearls which are
used by the wealthy, or the rice employed in a similar
manner by persons of poorer rank. The practice of
placing pearls in the mouth of the dead is an old one
in India and was noted by Marco Polo more than 600
years ago.5- As we shall see later on in this chapter,

50 Vincent, "The Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the
Indian Ocean/' London, 1807, vol. ii.. p. 519.

51 Chunam : lime prepared from burnt shells, etc., used for building
purposes, arid by natives for mixing with betel for chewing.

ia Kunz and Stevenson, op, cil., p. 310.

90 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

it is also a very ancient custom in China, and, more
interesting still, in the New World, where it appears to
have been carried by the great wave of megalithic culture
compounded of so many curious and remarkable elements.
In no other way can it be accounted for here, as it is in-
conceivable that such an arbitrary practice could have
developed independently in Asia and in America.

India is the home of many strange ideas concerning the
origin of pearls. From very early times they have been
considered as consolidated dew-drops, which Buddha in
certain months showered upon the earth, when they were
caught up by the gaping oysters whilst floating on the
waters to breathe.5" Streeter54 quotes many other equally
curious superstitions regarding their origin, from a work
by a native Indian Prince, the Rajah Sourindro Mohun
Tagore. In his ' Mani-Mala or a treatise on Gems,' 5I
this writer, in addition to the dew-drop theory, refers to
the general belief that pearls originate in clouds, ele-
phants, boars, conch-shells, fish, serpents, and bamboos.
The cloud-begotten idea seems to be a variant of the
dew-drop origin. " Pearls that originate in the head of
the Elephants of Khambogia are large as the fruit of the
einblic Myrobaian, heavy, and more yellow, but not more
lustrous than the other kinds." " Pearls which originate
in the head of the Boar are generally white, like the tusks
of that animal." " A pearl derived from the conch-shell
is of large dimensions, has the same colour as the inner
surface of that shell-fish, and is productive of good fortune
to its possessor."515 " Pearls attained from the mouth of sea-
fish are singularly round, small and light. Those which

53 Lovell, op. cit., p 47.

54 Streeter, op. cit., pp. 57-62.
5r> 2 vols., Calcutta, 1881.

"•''• Pearls are well-known from Stromlnts, 'I'lirbinclla, and other conch-
shells.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 91

originate in whales are agreeably round, but not highly
lustrous." 57 "Pearls which originate in the crest of Serpents,
are beautifully round .... the serpents who bear them
are the descendants of Vasuki, sovereign of the snakes,
are not born everywhere, and are rarely seen by men in
some sacred ground."3 "Pearls which originate in the
Bamboo are clear as the moon, and are like the Kakkol
frui in shape."

The same Indian authority says further, " In certain
places pearls are found on the head of frogs ; learned
men class them with serpent-pearls." This prominent
Indian belief which makes the head of the frog or
toad Nature's laboratory for the manufacture of pearls,
was- at one time widely .prevalent in the British Isles.

This idea is immortalized in the familiar lines of
Shakespeare —

" Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head."

On the Indian idea of the supposed medicinal proper-
ties of pearls the Rajah Sourindro .Mohun Tagore has
much to say in the work already quoted. The burnt
powder of these gems, if taken with water, cures hemor-
rhages, prevents evil spirits working mischief in men's
minds, cures lunacy and all mental diseases, jaundice, etc.,
etc. Used as a dentifrice it strengthens the gums and
cleans the teeth. Rubbed over the body with other medi-
cines it cures leprosy and all skin diseases. And so on,

In addition to the pearls themselves, the burnt pearl-
shells are also looked upon as efficacious in the cure of
many ailments ; but chank-shell powder appears to sur-

57 Pliny, "N. II.," bk. ix.. ch. 24, mentions fish which have a "stone"
in the head. He refers doubtless to the ear-bones or otoliths.

8 Is this a confusion of the pearly-like granules and shields found in
slugs, the 'snail-stones' credited with the property of strengthening eyes, etc. ?

92 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

pass either of these substances, the special significance
and auspicious nature of the chank inspiring the confi-
dence of patients in the value of this medicine.59

The superstitious reverence paid to these white shells
by the Hindus and other oriental people, recalls the
reverence paid by the Greeks and Romans to snails and
other shells. The internal pearly- like shell of some of
the slugs was believed by them to be highly efficacious in
the cure of fevers, diseases of the head or headaches.
The granular substance representing the shell in some
species was also believed to facilitate teething if suspended
from the necks of infants.60 In the same category are to be
included the worn fragments of shells, or " snail-stones,"
which were formerly much commended in Guernsey and
the Highlands of Scotland as a remedy for diseases of the
eyes.*!1 According to Humboldt,88 similar worn fragments
of shell, known as " eye-stones " (piednis de los ojos], were
regarded by the inhabitants of Araya, Venezuela, S.
America, as possessing extraordinary powers in the ex-
pulsion of foreign particles accidentally introduced into
the eye. Kunz83 also records that " eye-stones or opthalme
are taken from the crawfish in the Sandwich Islands.
They have been used from time immemorial for removing
dust or other particles from the eye." These " eye-stones "
are probably the so-called "crab-stones-" or " crab's-eyes,"
the concretions of carbonate of lime, developed on either
side of the stomach in the lobsters, crayfish, etc., before
the time of moulting.

5<J See IIornell?s interesting work on "The Sacred Chank of India/'
Madras Fisheries Bulletin, No. 7, 1914, especially Chap. iii.
«° Pliny, "N. H.," bk. xxix., ch. 36.

61 Johnston, "An Introduction to Conchology," London, 1850, p. 78.

62 Humboldt, " Pers. Narrative," i., p. 197 (Bohivs £d).

6S G. F. Kunz, "Folk-lore of Precious Stones," Memoirs Intermit.
Congr. Anthrop.) Chicago, 1894, p. 273.;

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-sJiell. 93

In European countries these concretions were formerly
used in the preparation of certain medicines.64

Like the pearl fisheries of southern India, those
situated off the north-west coast of Ceylon, in the Gulf
of Manaar, directly south of Adams Bridge, are of very
great antiquity. They are said to have been well-known
to the Phoenicians who traded here in purple robes
and other commodities.115 Pliny'i(i refers to Taprobane
(Ceylon) as the most productive of pearls of all parts of
the world. Ptolemy, Strabo, and other ancient writers
also speak of their importance. According to the
" Mahavansa," pearls figure among the native products
sent as presents from King Vigaya of Ceylon to his
Indian father-in-law, in about 550 15. C. ; and again when
in 306 B.C., King Devanampiyabissa sent an embassy to
India the presents are said to have included eight kinds of
Ceylon pearls."7 According to Tennent68 the eight kinds
of pearls were : " haya (the horse) ; gaja (the elephant) ;
ratha (the chariot wheel) ; maalaka (the nelli fruit) ;
valaya (the bracelet) ; anguliwelahka (the ring) ; kakuda-
phala (the kabook fruit) ; and pakatika, the ordinary
description."

The only other locality in Ceylon where pearls are
obtained is Tamblegam Lake, on the north-eastern coast,
neaf Trincomali. Here P lacuna fishing is carried on for
the sake of the diminutive pearls contained in them.
These are exported to the coast of India, to be burned
into lime for mixing with betel for chewing. (Tennent,
op. <;//., ii., pp. 491-2.)

64 Jeffreys, fi Brit. Conch." i. 1862, p. Ixv.

65 Streeter, op. <•//., p. 186 ; Tennent, "Ceylon," London,, 1859, 2nd
ed., vol. i., p. 551.

06 Pliny, " N.H.," bk. ix., ch. 54.

67 W. A. Herdman, " Report on the pearl oyster fisheries of Ceylon, '*
Royal Society, London, pt. i., 1903 ; also Kunzand Stevenson, <?A cit., p. 4.

'; s Tennent, op. cit., i., p. 446.

94 Shells (us evidence of the Migrations.

We have little definite information regarding the
early use of the fresh-water pearls of India except the
statement in the " Periplus "69 that a considerable traffic,
consisting of pearls, betel, Gangetic spikenard, and Gan-
getic muslins, passed through the market town of Ganges,
situated on the river of the same name. Schoff, in his
annotations of this work says "these (pearls) were not of
best quality ; as Dr. Taylor remarks, those of the Ganges
streams are inferior, being small, often irregular, and
usually reddish."

Eastward of India a most interesting pearl fishery
exists in the Mergui Archipelago (Lower Burma).
According to Kunz and Stevenson (pp. cit., p. 134), this
fishery originated with the Selangs or Salangs, a nomadic
race of maritime gipsies, supposed to be of Malay descent.
Their early history is unknown, and no information exists
as to when these people first found profit in searching for
pearls. It was probably many centuries ago, and for a
long time they made contributions of them to the Buddhist
rulers of Burma.

In the Malay Archipelago pearl-oysters are among
the important resources of the seas surrounding Sumatra,
Java, Borneo, Celebes, the Aru Islands, the Moluccas
and New Guinea. For hundreds of years pearl-shell and
pearls have been gathered by the natives from these
waters, and especially on the coast of the Aru Islands,
Halmahera, and adjacent Islands, on the east coast of
Celebes, and about the Sunda group. Pearl-oysters also
occur near many other islands in this neighbourhood,
including the Sulu Archipelago and the Philippines.7

«o "The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea : Travel and Trade in the
Indian Ocean by a merchant of the First Century." Translated from the
Greek and annotated by Wilfrid II. Schoff. London, 1912.

70 Von Hassling, op. cil., pp. 71-4 ; Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., pp.
212 seq.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-sJielL 95

Throughout Malaysia, including the Philippines and
Sulu Islands, the pearl is known as mutya> mootara,
wutyara, or some similar name, closely resembling the
Sanskrit mukta, or the Cingalese viootoo, indicating the
source of the influence that inaugurated the fishery and
trade of this region.71

At Pados Bay, island of Borneo, Placuna fishing is
also carried on, and the shells, dried meat, and the seed-
pearls they contain, all form important articles of
commerce. The seed-pearls are used as a form of currency
between the fishermen and the Chinese traders.7-

Throughout the Malay Archipelago, and especially
on the coast of Borneo, the natives allege that " breeding
pearls" exist, that is to say, there are pearls which possess
the power of reproduction or rather germination. It is
the generally accepted belief that if a few pearls of good
size are sealed up in a box together with some grains of
rice and a little cotton wool, they will increase in number
as well as in size. It is asserted that on opening the box
after several months, one or more small pearls will be
found therein, and the original ones none the worse ; but
the grains of rice will have the appearance of having
their ends nibbled as if by rodents.73

In China pearls appear to have been held in great
esteem since before the Christian era. They are re-
peatedly mentioned in the ancient literature of that
country, but, owing to the traditional nature of some of
these works, it is impossible to fix, with any degree of
accuracy, the period when they were first appreciated.
Some translators of Chinese books give a date as early as

71 Ibid.

72 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 221.

73 Streeter, op. cit., p. 69 ; Kunz and Stevenson, op. ci/., p. 296.

g6 Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

the 23rd qentury B.C., but other authorities are inclined to
take a more moderate view.

One of these early Chinese works, the " Shan Hai
King," presents us with some extraordinary information
regarding the existence and origin of pearls. According
to St*reeter,74"the 4th book of this work, or 'The Classic
of Mountains and Rivers,' refers to the Li river, one of the
affluents of the Tung-Ting Lake, which drains the north-
west portion of Hunan. 'In it are many Chu-pick fish'
(or water animals). * These look like lungs ^ but have eyes
and six feet, and they have pearls. They taste sour but
pleasant, and are not unwholesome.' . . . The same work
also states that wild animals were found which looked like
sucking-pigs, but have pearls" The identity of the
curious Chu-pick fish is not clear. Streeter says their
existence is confirmed in Ltishi's edition of the " Book of
Confucius," and remarks : " they are probably cuttle-fish
with six tentacles." Cuttle-fish, however, are essentially
marine animals, and, moreover, possess at least eight arms,
or tentacles. As mentioned previously (p. 92), concretions
of carbonate of lime, resembling pearls, are found in some
forms of freshwater crustaceans, such as the crayfish, but
here again, though eyes are present, these animals have
eight legs. It is not unlikely that the pearl-bearing
animals in question were freshwater mussels, the addition
of the eyes and feet being due to some confusion in the
translation of the passage.

In the oldest Chinese dictionary, the " Bh'-ya," pearls
are mentioned as precious products of Shensi in the
western part of the Empire. As Shensi is an inland
province in the very heart of China, these again must
have been freshwater pearls.75

74 Sireeter, op. ft/., p. 63.

75 Ibid., yp. 27 and 253.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-sJiell. 97

In the "Tribute of Yii " (Shoo King, pt. iii., bk. i ),7<!
we find it stated that Yii received as tribute, " oyster-
pearls and fish " and " baskets full of deep azure silks,"
from the wild tribes about the river H\vae (or Hwai),
between the Ho and Keang rivers [Kiangsu, E. China] ;
and from the district of King-chow he received " strings of
pearls that were not quite round," together with " baskets
filled with deep azure and purple silken fabrics."7

Though seemingly acquainted with the local fresh-
water pearls at a very early period, it would appear that
the marine pearl was unknown to the Chinese until about
400 B.C., when commercial intercourse between China and
the west had become fully established.

According to Lacouperie,7s to whom we are indebted
for much valuable information concerning the pearl-trade
in China, traders from the Indian Ocean (Erythrean Sea)
arrived in the Gulf of Kiao-tchou (South Shantung) in
the 7th century B.C. They established two colonies at
this place and entered into trade relations with cities in
Shantung, Shansi, Shensi, Kiangsu, Flonan, and other
states. Though pearls are not mentioned among the
objects they introduced at this period, it is not a little
curious to find that their sphere of influence coincides in
a remarkable manner with the area where pearls are said
to have been first known in China. This fact is significant
and would seem to suggest that it was through the
influence of these traders that the Chinese commenced to

7i: See translation by Dr. James Legge, in " The Chinese Classics,"
1865, vol. iii., pt. i., pp. 107 and 116.

7 T We have no means of ascertaining the source of the purple colour
of the silks used as tribute, but the point is of interest in connection with the
celebrated purple of the ancient Tyrians.. Is it possible that this famous dye
had been introduced already into China?

7 s Lacouperie, op. ciL

98 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

fish for the pearls contained in the mussels of the local
rivers.

About the 5th century B.C., Erythrean merchantmen
began to use Hang-tchou Bay as a calling station, in
addition to their earlier and more northern ports in the
Gulf of Kiao-tchou, bringing with them large pearls from
the Persian Gulf, and mother-of-pearl from the Indian
Ocean. This latter commodity is stated to have been
used to adorn the tomb of Duke Yii of Tsin, who died in
419 B.C. That the real pearl was a novelty at this period
is gathered from the expressions used by writers of the
4th century Meh-ti, Lieh-tze, Tsou-hien, and others. In
some cases it is associated with the Ye-Kwang — the stone
which shines at night, otherwise yakut ruby of Bardak-
shan. " And the name of Ming-gwet, a transfer and folk-
etymology of the western word for it, shows moreover its
western origin, most probably from the pearl fisheries of
the Persian Gulf, not of Ceylon."79

From this time onwards pearls were among the staple
articles imported into China by these same traders, though
the latter had several times to change their stations
and retreat southward owing to civil wars and the advance
in power of the Chinese. They used Kwei-ki, near the
present Ning-po, as their emporium until the Han Empire
extended its sway there in 201 B.C., when they made Tung-
yeh (present Fuhtchow of Fu-kiang) their station for a
time, importing big pearls from the Persian Gulf. These
were transhipped from there to Kwei-ki, which was a
market for them. In 187 — 140 B.C., one Tchu-tchung was
trading in pearls at Kwei-ki, some of the gems being of
remarkably large size.

70 Lacouperie, op. cit., pp. 180-1 and 365; Ming-gwet^ mod. J\lin^-
ytieh, shining moon. — Cf. Sanskrit, marakata ; Greek, maragdos ; Latin,
margarita; Persian marvid', etc., (fide Lacouperie).

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 99

The rising of the Nan-Yueh kingdom attracted the
foreign trade to the region of the present Canton, and on
the conquest by the Nan-Yueh emperor of the country
westward, in 179 B.C., the Hormuzian or Hwang-tchi
(yellow-fingered) sea-traders,80 as they were called, estab-
lished themselves in the Island of Hainan, where they
discovered pearls on the west coast and created the pearl
fisheries of Tchu-yai, i.e. the coast of pearls (present
Yai tchou). They traded with the Nan-Yueh through a
station called Hop-pu, near the present Pakhoi, their
goods reaching the principal market of Heng shan, east of
Nan-ning, in S.W. Kwangsi, on the Yti Kiang leading by
the Pearl river to Canton.

In no B.C., these Hormuzian sea-traders once more
removed their chief landing place, establishing it further
south, on the west of Cape Cambodia, on the east side of
the Gulf of Siam, in Tcham, the Zabai of Ptolemy. From
here they traded Persian Gulf pearls ^to Kattigara and
IIoppu (near the present Pakhoi).

In the early Christian era, Cingalese traders seem to
have taken over most of the trade with China. Among
the articles of commerce mentioned in the Annals of the
Eastern Han dynasty, in 69 A.D., are bright pearls and
oyster-pearls from Ceylon.81

It is of some interest to note here that pearls are
obtained at the present day in the Gulf of Siam from a
small oyster with a thin shell. Kunz and Stevenson (op.
cit., p. 149) inform us that " the Siamese do not especially
value pearls, attributing superstitious sentiments or ill

so Names derived from Hormuzia, near the Persian Gulf, and from the
use of henna to dye their fingers.

S1 Lacouperie, op. cit., p. 252, and p. 255 note 1112 ; Kwang-tchu, i.e.
bright pearls, different in name from the Ming-givet pearls of the Persian
Gulf; pang-tchu, oyster-pearls (? pearl-oyster shells).

IOO

SJiells as evidence of the Migrations.

luck to them.'' They further remark : " Some fine old
specimens of marquetry in which these [pearl] shells were
used exists in the Buddhist temples at Bangkok. This art
of inlaying is almost lost to-day among the Siamese, and
there is said to be only one man in the king's palace who
can lay any claims to proficiency in working mother-of-
pearl shell."

In China during the Han dynasty, De Groot informs
1 us,8'2 " pearls also occupied a place among the objects
which were introduced into the mouth of the dead. At
least it is stated in the funeral ritual for the Sovereigns of
this house that ' their mouths were filled with rice, and
pearls and jade stone were put therein, in accordance with
the established ceremonial usages.' And the ' Foh hu
thung i,' a well-known work professedly written in the
first century, says : * On stuffing the mouth of the Son of
Heaven with rice, they put jade therein ; in the case of a
feudal lord they introduce pearls, in that of a Great officer
and so downwards, as also in that of ordinary officials,
cowries are used to this end.'"

The free use of pearls and other precious objects in
connection with the ritual of the dead, is said to be founded
on a desire to procure light for the soul, that it may be
conducted safely along its paths in the dark beyond. But
the chief object of this practice, it would appear, is to save
the body from a speedy decay.83

The custom of placing articles of value in the mouth
of the dead is analogous to similar practices widely
prevalent in other parts of the world. It is well known to
have obtained among the Greeks, the Romans, the Hindus
and the ancient Mexican emperors.84

•"- De Groot, "The Religious System of China,'' Leyden. 1892, vol. i.,
p. 277.

-:; Ibid., p. 278. [On this question, however, see the Introduction to
the present hook].

"4 //>/</., p. 279, footnote.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. lor

Reference has already been made (supra p. 89) to the
placing of pearls in the mouths of deceased Hindus ; a
similar custom was practised by the " mound builders" of
the Mississippi valley (see p. 114).

Pearls are frequently alluded to in Chinese literature
as the depositories of Yang matter, and as such ranked
among the bearers of vitality. Medical works declare that
they can ensure and facilitate the procreation of children,
and these same books say that pills made of pearls mixed
with the blood from the comb of a cock and inserted in
the eyes of a person who has suddenly expired, or lost
his speech, can be useful in recalling the person to life;0

The valves of Unio tientsinensis, the Ko-fen of the
Chinese, are used by these people as a powder in medicine,
and occasionally as one of the ingredients of pills, as a
substitute for the pearls from the marine pearl-oyster. On
account of the costliness of pearls from the latter source,
pills and powders made from them are said to possess
marvellous powers of cure, and are even used in the treat-
ment of small-pox. sti

It would seem that in China, and in other oriental
countries, a distinction is made in the therapeutic pro-
perties of so-called " virgin " pearls and of those pierced
or bored for stringing. One Chinese natural history states
that bored pearls will not serve for medicine, for which
unpierced ones should be used.87

Legends of "lightning pearls," " pearls shining during
the night," "pearls lighting like the moon," inter alia,
are current in considerable numbers in the native litera-

S5 Ibid., pp. 217 and 277.

s'; Lovell, op. cit.. pp. 75 and 102, quoting J. O. Desbeaux, " Essai sur
la Pharmacie el la Malic-re Medicale des Chinots.''

" Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., pp. 308-9- .

2OI S/iel/s as evidence of t lie Migrations.

ture. Allusions are made to pearls so brilliant that they
were visible at a distance of nearly a thousand yards.
Rice, it is alleged, could be cooked by the light from them.
One found about the beginning of the Christian era, near
Yangchdw-fu, province of Kiang-su, was reported so
lustrous as to be visible in the dark for a distance of
three miles.88

The "Ch'eng Yii K'ao," compiled by Ch'iu Chin,
alias Wen Chuang, a famous scholar of the Ming dynasty
(born A.I). 1419 ; died 1495),^ contains several interesting
references to pearls, some of the mosj curious being that
" pearls can ward off the calamity of fire " ; " the mermaid
wept tears that became pearls " ; " Ma Ku threw grains of
rice which became pearls " ; and : " He who cut open his
stomach to hide the pearl loved mammon more than his
life." T'ai Tsung of the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 627 — 650),
when warning his minister against covetousness, and
licentiousness, said that those who were guilty of these
offences were as worthy of ridicule as the merchant from
Syria, who opened his stomach to hide the* pearl. One
Chinese work states that when the whale dies, its eyes
are changed into pearls.90

Regarding the origin of pearls many fantastic theories
are to be found in ancient Chinese literature. By some
writers they are credited as originating in the brain of
the fabled dragon, and frequent allusions are made to
pearls under the throats and in the mouths of these
creatures. In China and Japan, as well as in India, pearls
were considered to be in the special possession of dragon-

* De Grool, op. ci/., p. 277 ; Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit , p. 5.

s9 See translation by J. H. Stewart Lockhart in "A .Manual of Chinese
Quotations," Hong Kong, 2nd Ed., 1903.

pp. 395 and 402.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 103

shaped sea-gods, or Nagas.91 These mythological creatures
— gods of water, thunder, rain, and wind — were believed
to have their abode in certain ponds and rivers, and
especially in splendid palaces at the bottom of the sea.
Hence we find many curious stories in the literature of
these countries. In Oldham's work "The Sun and the
Serpent" (London, 1905, p. 61), allusion is made to the
Nagas of southern India living under the sea in a place
called the land of gems/- Legge, in the " Sacred Books
of the East" (vol. xl., p. 211), quotes a legend from
Shuangtze, a writer of the 4th century B.C., who says :
" Near the Ho river there was a poor man, who supported
his family by weaving rushes. His son, when diving in a
deep pool, found a pearl worth a thousand ounces of
silver. The father said : * Bring a stone and beat it to
pieces, a pearl of this value must have been in a pool
nine khung deep and under the chin of the black dragon.
That you were able to get it must have been owing to
your having found him asleep. Let him awake, and the
consequences will not be small.' "' Another old Chinese
account of the Lien-chan district, in the Canton province
(Kwantung), states : " In the sea there is an island with a
lake, into which the barbarous natives dive for shells ;
some years they are abundant, and in others scarce.
There is a myth amongst the fishermen of a walled city
at the bottom, guarded by monsters, containing pearls of
large size and splendour, but which cannot be obtained
for the guards ; small ones, growing outside the city waits
like grass, being the only ones obtainable." !l

9 ' On the subject of the Chinese dragon, see Dr. M. W. de Visser,
" The Dragon in China and Japan," Amsterdam, 1913.
- \Y. J. Perry, op. cit., p. II, quoting Oldham.

93 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 302, quoting Legge.

04 F. Hague, "On the Natural and Artificial production of Pearls in
China," fourn. Roy. Asiat. Soc. G. B. &* I. , vol. xvi., pt. 2, Art. xv., p. 281.

IO4 Shells <is evidence of tJic. Migrations.

All these myths seem to be modifications of the
old idea of social relations between pearl-oysters and
sharks, or of the curious story quoted by Pliny (Bk. ix.,
ch. 55) from Megasthenes that pearl-oysters lived in
communities, just like swarms of bees, each of them being
governed by one remarkable for its size and great age
(or splendour), and which at the same time possessed
marvellous skill in keeping its subjects out of danger ;
the divers, it is said, took especial care to find these, so
that the others might easily be taken.

The art of artificial pearl-making seems to have been
practised by the Chinese for several centuries. Mr. F.
Hague, British Consul at Ningpo, informs us that " there
is a note that at the commencement of the seventh
century, pearls were made of a composition or medicine.
The art may have been lost, or it may be the same as that
now employed at, and which originated at, Canton."9 In
conjunction with Dr. Me Gowan, an American physician
resident at Ningpo, the method pursued by the Chinese
with the "Mussel-pearl" was carefully investigated, and
excellent accounts of this interesting industry have been
published.96 The practice of trie art is carried on in two
villages near the city of Teht-sing (Titsin) in the northern
part of Chihkiang (Chekiang), in a silk-producing region.
In May or June, quantities of large freshwater mussels
(Dipsas plicatus] are brought from the Tfihu, a lake in
Kiang-su, some thirty miles distant, and after a few days'
respite in bamboo cages in water, various matrices are
introduced between the animal and the shell by means
of a bifurcated bamboo stick. After a sufficient number
has been treated they are placed in canals, pools, and
streams. In about a year the matrices become incrusted

05 Ibid., p. 282.
6 Ibid., pp. 280-4 ' and McGowan, Journ. of Soi. of Arts, ii., pp. 72-5.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 105

with the pearly nacre, and the mussels are taken out of
the water, and the " pearls " detached by a sharp knife.
The matrices used vary in form and substance, the most
common being pellets of mud. Another class consists of
small images, especially of Buddha, in the usual sitting
position, or sometimes of a fish ; they are made of lead,
cast very thin. The invention of the art is attributed to
a native of the place, named Ye-jin-yang, to whom a
temple has been erected, in which divine honours are paid
to his image. He is said to have lived about A.D. 1200 —
1300. The topography of Chihkiang .mentions a pearl
sent to Court in 490 A.D., which resembled Buddha, being
three inches in size. The resemblance, however, may have
been fanciful ; the "pearls" now made are but half-an-inch
long.

Other writers have given similar accounts of this
curious industry, but the most remarkable is that related
by Mary Roberts in her little book on the " Popular
History of the Mollusca" (1851, pp. 275-6). She tells
us that in the possession of Sir Joseph Banks were
" several Chinese Chamae [? Unio\ in the shells of which
were contained bits of iron wire, covered with a substance
of a pearly nature. These wires had 'evidently once been
sharp, and it seemed as if the mollusks, anxious to secure
themselves against the intrusion of such unwelcome
visitors, had encrusted, and thus rendered blunt, the
points with which they came in contact" She concludes
by remarking : " may not, therefore, the process employed
in past ages be still practised? And are we not authorized
in conjecturing that these bits of iron, which probably
had slipped from the hands of the Chinese workmen, and
remained in the animal, resembled the spikes noticed by
Philostratus as being used by the ancient people who
inhabited the banks of the Red Sea, for the purpose of

io6 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

pricking mussels? " In view of the fact that the Chinese
retain, with few alterations, the arts and customs of their
ancestors, these suggestions are not at all improbable.
In this connection it will be of interest to notice the
particular skill possessed by the Chinese in drilling holes
in pearls. This, as pointed out by Lacouperie (op. cit.^
p. 241, note 1037"), they may have learned from the pearl-
traders of Hormuz who were celebrated for their ability
in this respect, and to whom Ceylon pearls were sent for
that purpose.

At what period pearls were first appreciated in Japan
is not known. The occurrence of pearls on the coasts of
that country is repeatedly alluded to in ancient works
relating to Japan. According to Kunz and Stevenson,97
they are mentioned in the Nihonki, of the eighth century,
the oldest Japanese history. Dr. T. Nishikawa also states
they were used in Japan for ornamental purposes more
than a thousand years ago. Large pearls derived from
the abalone, or Plaliotis, are found in images of Buddha
made in 300 A.I). Freshwater pearls, from Dipsas and
Unio, appear to have been also used.98 In Marco Polo's
time these people still carried on the Chinese custom of
placing pearls in the mouth of the dead. We learn from
this famous traveller that " in the island of Chipan-gu
(the kingdom of Japan), the Chinese Jih-pan-Kwe, rose-
coloured pearls were abundant, and quite as valuable as
the white ones," that " some of the dead were buried and
others were burnt," and "when a body was burnt they put
one of the rose-coloured pearls in the mouth, for such is
their custom. "w These coloured pearls were doubtless
derived from conch-shells.

;'r Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 147.

os Ibid., p. 414.

'•"•> Colonel Henry Yule, C.B.. " The Book of Ser Marco Polo'' (Book

iii., ch. ii.), vol. ii., p. 200.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 107

In 1/27, Kaempfer noted that pearls were obtained
by the Japanese from small sorts of oysters, called akojay
not unlike the Persian pearl-oyster ; also from the yello\v
snail shell and from the taira gai (P lacuna}, and especially
from the awabi or abalone (Haliotis)™

From narratives of China by the Jesuits, there appears
to be some evidence of a former pearl fishery in the
neighbourhood of Saghalin Island, but the intelligent
navigator, M. de la Perouse, expressed much doubt on
this point. He acknowledged that his people found
oysters that contained pearls, and admitted it possible
that a few families of fishermen may have united together
for the purpose of fishing for pearls, in order to exchange
them for nankeens and other articles of commerce from
China ; but he did not observe that any of the natives of
the places at which he touched on the coast estimated
this kind of pearl more than common beads.101 There
seems to be, however, ample evidence of old-established
pearl-fisheries in this region, judging from the various
records summarized by Von Hessling in 1859 (op. tit.,
pp. 201-4). In Manchuria, he tells us, pearls have been
fished, from the oldest time to the present day, in the
streams which flow into the Songari, a tributary of the
Amur. Witsen, writing in 1705, mentions the pearls from
the Gan, a tributary of the Amur, and also from the
islands of the Amur at the junction of the Skilka and
Argun. Pearl-fisheries were established here by the
Russians nearly two centuries ago. Pearls are finer and
more plentiful, says Hessling, in southern Manchuria,
especially in Lake Heikow or Hing-tchou-men, "Black
Lake " or " Gate of Precious Gems," where they have been
fished for ages for the account of the Emperor of China.

0 K.un / and Stevenson, op. iif.. pp. 147-8.

101 G. A. Cooke, ''System of Universal Geography," vol. i. (1801),
P- 574-

loS Shells as evidence of t lie Migrations.

Cooke, in 1801 (op. cit., vol. i., p. 425), also speaks
of the Manchurian pearls as an article of commerce,
together with a plant called ginseng.10*

In Kamtchatka, pearl fisheries are recorded from the
south end of the peninsula (Lopatka), and from Nijni
Kamtchatsk, on the east coast : these are possibly fresh-
water fisheries. Pearls have also been found at the
Kurile Islands, and at Lebashja, on the south coast of the
Sea of Okhotsk, but these were probably from sea shells,
Mytilus ednlis or MacJiaera costata, as no Unios are
recorded from these places.10"

An interesting reference to very early intercourse
between north-eastern Asia and China is quoted by
Lacouperie in his work already cited (p. 353, note 195).
It appears that the " Shih y hi" (kiv. 5) mentions a
mission of a Nele country in 193 H.C., from beyond Fusang
(Saghalin). Dr. G. Schlegel identifies this with the
country of the Tchuktchis, in which Lacouperie concurs.
No information is given as to the object of the mission,
but it seems probable that it was for the purposes of
trade. If so, it is not unlikely that the envoys would
learn of the appreciation of the pearl by the Chinese —
who were well acquainted with the gem by this date —
and benefiting by the knowledge, they might have in-
stituted pearl fisheries on their own account. The present

102 Ginseng (Panax schinseng} is a native of Tartary and Northern
China, growing at one time abundantly in Manchuria, but its great use in
China has caused it to become scarce. It is a low herbaceous plant with
forked roots, which the Chinese imagine resembles the human form, and is
supposed to ward off all diseases. It is slightly bitter and aromatic, but is
not of much repute with European doctors. Fana.\ qidnqltefoliat a native
of North America, is sometimes substituted for it (Smith, " Domestic
Botany," 1871, p. 362). Ginseng is used by the Indians of Canada, Virginia,
South Carolina, etc., along with Snake root. (Cooke, cp. <•//., ii., pp. 32,
69 and 79).

r> Von Ilessling, op. ci/., p. 204.

Distribution of Pearls and 1 ^earl-shell. 109

pearl fisheries in this region, detailed above, may be
survivals of an ancient industry.

In northern Siberia, according to Witsen, pearls were
found in the waters around Mangasea on the Turuchan,
and a manuscript in the Moscow College notes that they
were found in the river Tunguska which flows into the
Yenisei. Witsen also refers to their occurrence in the
rivers and streams of Irkutsk and Onon ; Pallas speaks
of the Him, a tributary of the Angara, as another river
where they occur.104

Kunz and Stevenson (op. cit., p. 410) mention an in-
teresting discovery (made in southern Siberia in the time
of Peter the Great) of a broken gold ring with a roughly-
cut turquoise and two pendants, each set with two pearls
separated by a garnet. This object is thought to belong
to the second century before Christlor>

In the Pacific Islands pearls and pearl-shell seem to
have been appreciated for centuries. Among the native
ornaments noted by Captain Cook at Tahiti were feathers,
shells and pearls ; but the latter were worn chiefly by the
women. In the Marquesas Islands, plates of mother-of-
pearl decorated the principal head-dress of the natives,
while ornaments consisting chiefly of pearl-shell were seen
in Toobouai ; Friendly Islands ; Mangeea Island ; New
Caledonia ; New Zealand ; etc. The pearl-shell was also
found to be employed in the construction of fish-hooks in
many of the islands visited by early navigators. 10fi

Since Cook's time a considerable literature has accu-
mulated on the subject of these pearl-shell fish-hooks.
Iledley, in his "Ethnology of Funafuti"107 gives a most

1 u* Il> id., p. 20 1.

105 Given as second century A.D. on plate figuring the specimen.
111 " G. A. Cooke, op. <•;/., i. (1801), pp. 32, 36, 62, 65, 84, 85, 101,
105, 113, 131, 178, 273 and 318.

107 Mem. Aits/. JIus., iii., pp. 266 t_t seq.

1 10 Shel/s as evidence of 'the Migrations.

interesting account of their manufacture and distribution
in the various islands of the Pacific. The pearl-shell
hooks he remarks, " represented to the Ellice Islanders
of past generations their most valued treasures. Apart
from their intrinsic worth they acquired, as conveying a
maximum of wealth in a minimum of space, an artificial
value approximating to the coins of more advanced
civilisations." They were appreciated to such an extent
that they were frequently offered to the gods, and on
Vaitupu, or Tracey Island, where the dead were buried
inside the houses, they were deposited in the grave with
the body, accompanied by necklaces and other ornaments.
In former times messages were transmitted from atoll to
atoll by means of pearl fish-hooks attached to the wings
of Frigate-birds.108

According to Hedley the value of these hooks in the
Ellice Archipelago was heightened by the rarity and
inaccessibility of the shell (Avicula cumingii) from which
they are made, the supply being principally from a bed
in the Lagoon of Nukulailai. This type of hook, he
informs us, is universal throughout the Pacific, being used
alike by Melanesians, Polynesians, and Micronesians.
Examples are recorded from Manihiki and Mortlock
Islands, the Gilbert and Hawaiian Groups, Danger Island,
Strong's Island, Tahiti, Tonga, Samoa, and the Solomons;
also from the Carolines, the Marshalls, and the Marquesas.
In New Zealand, owing to the absence of the true pearl-
shell, the Maories made use of " pawa " (Haliotis iris) as
a substitute for the flashing nacre of the Avicula.

Turner109 informs us that at Nukulailai offerings con-
sisting of pearl-shell were taken to the temple, and at

108 Hedley, op. fit., p. 266 ; see also pp. 47, 53 and 59 ; and G. Turner,
•*' Samoa, etc.," London, 1884, pp. 282 and 284.

100 G. Turner, op. fit., pp. 280 and 288.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 1 1 1

Nanomana similar offerings were suspended under the
altars of the principal gods Foelangi and Maumau.

Among the Torres Straits Islanders pearl-shells are
trimmed and worn as breast-ornaments, or carved into
beautiful crescentic and other shapes to be worn as
pendants either on the chest or in the ears.110

They also appear to have been used in mummifica-
tion, as Dr. Elliot Smith has recently referred to the case
of a Torres Straits mummy having the eye-sockets filled
with a gum or resinous substance in which narrow oval
pieces of mother-of-pearl were embedded.111

Crescent-shaped plates of pearl-shell are also in
common use as breast ornaments in British New Guinea
and the Solomon Islands, and the same shell is used as
an inlay to decorate the native canoes.11"

In the Sandwich Islands the eyes of idols were
noticed by Captain Cook to be made from large pearl
oysters, with a black nut fixed in the centre.

Ellis, in his *' Polynesian Researches," 11:i gives us a
lucid description of the curious dress worn in Tahiti at
death ceremonies of chiefs. This consisted of a cap of
thick native cloth fitted close to the head ; in front were
two large broad mother-of-pearl shells, covering the face
like a mask, with one small aperture through which the
wearer could look. Attached to this head-dress was a
beautiful kind of network composed of small pieces of
brilliant mother-of-pearl shell, each being about an inch
or an inch and a half long, and less than a quarter of an

110 A. C. Haddon, "Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological
Expedition to Torres Straits," vol. iv., 1912, pp. 40-45.

in "The Migrations of Early Culture" (Manchester, 1915), p. 93.

112 Haddon, op. cit., iv., p. 43; and H. B. Guppy, "The Solomon
Islands and their Natives," London, 1887, pp. 131 and 146-7.

113 Vol. i., pp. 412-3.

112 She Us as evidence of the Migrations.

inch wide. Every piece was finely polished, and reduced
to the thinness of a card. Small perforations were made
at each corner to enable the pieces to be threaded
together. The labour in making this, Ellis says, must
have been excessive, as so many hundred pieces of pearl-
shell had to be cut, ground down, polished, and perforated,
without iron tools. Its manufacture was regarded as a
sacred work.

Pearl-oyster shells set in whales' teeth are considered
to be the most valuable ornament that a Fijian possesses;
he wears it at dances hanging on his breast, and he is
forbidden by the chiefs to sell it.114

It has been asserted by some historians that pearls
were unknown in the New World in pre-Columbian times,
but we have evidence that ages prior to the discovery
of America by Columbus the ancient inhabitants fully
appreciated these gems. Quantities of pearls, in many
cases perforated for stringing as necklaces, etc., have been
discovered in the mounds erected by the ancient popu-
lation of the Mississippi Valley. Professor Putnam115
records that in excavating the mounds near Madisonville,
Indiana, not less than fifty thousand pearls were found,
most of them pierced and injured by heat. Squier and
Davis llfi found them on the hearths of five distinct groups
of mounds in Ohio, and sometimes in such numbers that
they could be gathered by the hundred. In addition to
the pearls, quantities of other interesting objects were met
with which indicate the existence of inter-tribal com-
merce on an extensive scale at a remote period. The

114 II. X. Moseley, " Notes by a Naturalist on II. M.S. Challenger,"
1892, p. 286.

us />m- Ciller. Assoc. Adi'. .SV/., 1884.

3 ' n Squier and Davis, "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,"
"Washington, 1848.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 1 1 3

pearls were originally thought to have been brought from
fisheries in southern waters, but are now considered as
having been derived, partly, if not entirely, from the fresh-
water mussels (Unto) so abundant in the rivers of the
region of the mounds. W. C. Mills, in his " Explorations
of the Edwin Harness Mound,"117 also speaks of the large
quantities of freshwater pearls made into beads which
were found in every section of the Harness Mound. In
one instance more than two thousand of these beads were
found with one burial. They are all small, some being
perfectly round. Several hundred were obtained ranging
in diameter from a quarter to half an inch. In some cases
the large pearls had been flattened on one side and set in
copper ; in others, the pearls were often flattened and
pierced with two holes, as if for attachment to fabrics,
etc. The most curious discovery, however, in this mound
was that of imitation pearls made of clay, and apparently
modelled from real ones. These clay imitations appear
to have been coated with mica and then burned so as to
preserve a pearly appearance. This remarkable discovery
is of great interest as recalling the clay pellets used by
the Chinese in their artificial pearl-making industry.

At the Gartner Mound, in the same region, a shell
gorget was found with a hole cut in the centre and a
pearl cut and mounted to fill it.118 And gorgets and
crescents made from fresh-water pearl-shells were by no
means uncommon in this and other Ohio mounds.

In his description of "The Seip Mound,"119 situated
within the largest prehistoric earthworks of the Paint

1 17 Ohio ArchteoL and Hist, Qitat/., vol. xvi., no, 2, 1907.

118 Mills, "Explorations of the Gartner Mound and Village Site,"
Ohio Ar<:/i. and Hist. Quart., vol. xiii., no. 2, 1904.

llw Mills, "The Seip Mound," Putnam Anniversary Volume. X.Y.,
1909, pp. no. 1 14 and 122.

114 Shells as evidence of 'the Migrations.

Creek valley of Ohio, this same authority refers to other
occurrences of pearls including a beautiful string of these
gems in a good state of preservation from one burial ;
also to the discovery of bears' teeth set with pearls in
what appeared to be sacred shrines for the dead.

In addition to the archaeologists cited above, other
noted authorities, including W. K. Moorehead, have
examined the mounds of the Ohio region, and have met
with abundant evidence, both in the burial and in the
altar mounds, of the ancient appreciation of pearls.120

When found in burial mounds with skeletons, the

| pearls are usually at the wrists or ankles, or about the

neck, or in the mouth, the latter recalling forcibly the

Hindu and Chinese custom of placing pearls in the mouth

of the dead (supra pp. 89 and 100).

In the case of the altar mounds, there is evidence of
a different procedure. Instead of a burial, there was a
great funeral sacrifice in honour of some distinguished
person, in which numerous treasures, including quantities
of pearls, were consumed, or meant to be.

It would seem that though the number of pearls
encountered in the mounds of the Ohio region is very
great, the graves which contain them are relatively very
few. They seem to have been buried only with persons
of special distinction, probably either chiefs or eminent
medicine men : this preferential use of pearls, it may be
observed, was also found in Asiatic countries.

In the mounds of Illinois pearls have also been met
with associated with skeletons of Indians. Dr. J. F.
Snyder records the discovery of large canine teeth of the
bear, set with pearls, at the base of a large mound which
he opened in 1895, in Brown County, on the west side

120 An excellent summary of the work of these authorities is given by
Kunz and Stevenson (op. erf., especially in Chap, xvii.)

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 1 1 5

of the Illinois River. Near by were also the remains of
a necklace composed of alternate pearls and bone beads.
The McEvers Mound in Montezuma, Pike Co., Illinois,
also yielded, according to D. I. Bushnell, the excavator, a
group of forty-five pearls, including one of beautiful lustre
weighing fifty- two grains.1'21

The use of pearls as ornaments, and for depositing with
the remains of persons of distinction, was also customary
among the Indian tribes of Virginia. The accounts of early
explorers and colonists furnish us with many details as
regards the burial of pearls with the dead and their
use in religious rites. The first English colonists found
the Indians of Virginia esteeming pearls among their
favourite treasures and ornaments. An excellent account
of these Indians is given by Charles C. Willoughby in the
" American Anthropologist" (vol. ix., 1907). This article
is of great interest as dealing with the habits and customs
of the tribes occupying tidewater Virginia at the time
of the first colonization. The Indians, a branch of the
Algonquian stock, formed a powerful confederacy under
Powhatan comprising some thirty tribes. To the greater
chiefs tribute was paid in pearls, copper, beads, skins, etc.
Pearls were also used to adorn the native clothing, as
well as for necklaces and ear-pendants. Strachey, an
early explorer, reports having seen " manie chaynes and
braceletts (of pearls) worne by the people, and wee have
found plentie of them in the sepulchers of their kings,
though discoloured by burning the oysters in the fier, and
deformed by grosse boring." The writings of this and
other explorers give curious accounts and descriptions of
the " temples " within which, in a sort of sanctuary or
" chancel," were kept the dried bodies of deceased chiefs,
and an image of the god, called Okee, made in the shape

121 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 509,

1 1 6 Sliells as evidence of the Migrations.

of a man, " all black, dressed with chaynes of perle." The
process of preserving the remains of the chiefs is described
as follows: "After the body had been disemboweled, the
skin was laid back and the flesh was cut away from the
bones. When this operation was completed, the skeleton,
held together by its ligaments, was again inclosed in the
skin, and stuffed with white sand, or with ' pearle, copper,
beads, and such trash sowed in a skynne.' It was then
dressed in fine skins and adorned with all sorts of
valuables, including strings of pearls and beads. The
same kinds of treasures were also deposited in a basket
at the feet of the mummy." ]

The chroniclers of De Soto's expedition to Florida in
1539, speak of almost fabulous quantities of pearls in the
possession of the Indians of the parts traversed by them.
One Portuguese narrator says, " they obtained fourteen
bushels of pearls'5 from a certain sepulchre, and it is
stated that a common foot soldier had " a linen bag, in
which were six pounds of pearls/' and pearls are elsewhere
spoken of that are " as large as filberts." Garcillasso de la
Vega says " while de Soto sojourned in the province of
Ichiaha the cacique visited him one day and gave him a
string of pearls about two fathoms long. This present
might have been a valuable one if the pearls had not
been pierced, for they were all of equal size and as large
as hazelnuts." ]

" As in Cleopatra's time in Egypt," says Streeter, 124
" so in Florida, the graves of the kings were decorated
with pearls. Soto's soldiers found in one of their temples

1 - - ittd. , pp. 486-8.

ls* Stearns, Kept. U.S. Nat. Mits., 1887(1889), pt. ii., p. 279, quoting
Irving's " Conquest of Florida " ; see also Grace King. " De Soto and his
men in the Land of Florida,'' New York, 1914, pp. 136-143, etc.

'-4 Streeler, op. fit., pp. 45-6.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 117

great wooden coffins, in which the dead lay embalmed,
and beside them were small baskets full of pearls. The
temple of Tolomecco, however, was the richest in pearls ;
its high walls and roof were of mother-of-pearl, while
strings of pearls and plumes of feathers hung round the
walls ; over the coffins of their kings hung their shields,
crowned with pearls, and in the centre of the temple
stood vases full of costly pearls."

Though the various accounts relating to the abundance
of pearls in Florida are probably somewhat exaggerated,
there seems sufficient evidence to prove that pearls of some
value were in the possession of the wealthier tribes. That
they were met with in some numbers in graves seems also
to be a reliable statement.1-'

As to the source of these pearls, most of the narratives
refer to them as coming from the coast of the South Sea
or Gulf of Mexico. While possibly this was the case with
some of the pearls, it is more probable that the majority
came from the freshwater shells (Unios) of the inland
lakes and rivers.

In Alabama, pearls pierced for stringing have been
found in several of the mounds at Moundville by Clarence
B. Moore, along with a sheet-copper pendant bearing a
perforated pearl nearly / mm. in diameter, and an elliptical
gorget of sheet-copper decorated with a pearl.1-" Per-
forated pearl beads have been also found in the Etowah
Mound, located in Barton County, Georgia.1-7

At the pre-Columbian capital of Copan, in Western
Honduras, evidences have been met with pointing to a
very early use of pearls. G. B. Gordon1-8 tells us that in

125 This question is fully discussed by Kunz and Stevenson (op. ••?'/.,
pp. 252-259).

t; Kun/ and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 493.
1 '-' W. K. Moorehead, " Prehistoric Implements," N. V., 1900, p. 376.

lt" (i. 15. Gordon, "The Mysterious City of Honduras," The Century
Magazine, vol. lv., p. 417.

1 1 8 SJiells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

exploring a number of isolated tombs beneath the pave-
ment of courtyards and under the foundations of houses
at thfe city, human remains were found associated with
various articles of use and adornment. " The beads, ear-
ornaments, medallions, and a variety of other ornaments,
usually of jadeite," Gordon remarks, " exhibit an extra-
ordinary degree of skill in the art of cutting and polishing
stones, while the pearls and trinkets carved from shell
must have been obtained by trade or by journeys to
the coast." Thomas Gann, of Yucatan, also states that
" ornaments such as beads, gorgets, and ear-pendants,
made from the pearly shell of both the oyster and the
conch, are of common occurrence in many sepulchral
mounds in British Honduras and Yucatan." 12SI

In Guatemala no pearls appear to have been observed
in the pre-Columbian graves, but marine shells, whole,
and elaborated in connection with jadeite beads have
been found.130

On the Pacific coast of Mexico, and especially along
the coast of Lower California, quite extensive pearl-
fisheries are prosecuted. The fisheries on the Mexican
coast appear to have been in existence for centuries.
European knowledge of these resources dates from the
conquest of Mexico by Cortes about 1522. Native chiefs
were found living in primitive huts along the sea-shore,
with quantities of beautiful pearls lying around, and from
a tribe near the present site of Hermosillo, in the State of
Sonora, Cortes secured quantities of the gems.1 :1

Pearls were highly appreciated by the Aztec kings,
and the gems were employed to decorate statues of the
gods and their temples, as in India. The temple in which

12<J Kun/ and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 511-

130 Ibid., p. 511.

131 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 241.

Distribution of Pearls and Pearl-shell. 1 19

Montezuma used to pray at night, is said to have had walls
of beaten silver and gold, decorated with pearls and precious
stones.1*" Humboldt refers to a statue of a Mexican
priestess in basalt, whose head-dress is ornamented with
pearls.1*' Bateman ia4 likewise mentions an ancient Mexi-
can horned head-dress, inlaid in mosaic with turquoise,
malachite, coral (?), and mother-of-pearl. Pearl-shell also
appears to have been used as an inlay in the Mexican
mosaic masks in the British Museum, which are pre-
Columbian in origin. One of these, a plain mask, is of
special interest as the eyes are of mother-of-pearl.1:i5

Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, in a letter to Kunz and Steven-
son,1* writes " that pearls are not mentioned either as
articles of tribute or of decoration in ancient Mexican
codices ; possibly a lack of fine, hard instruments with
which to drill holes in pearls may have caused them to be
comparatively little used in personal adornment. Neither
do they appear to have been found incrusted in prehis-
toric objects, and we have no written evidence of their
having been used in this way. We do not know of any
instances of the wearing of pearls by the Indian women,
but the women of the higher classes used to wear them
profusely, more especially drop-earrings and pendants."

\\ . H. Holmes,1;!7 quoting from Davis' " Spanish Con-
quest of New Mexico," says : "In travelling north along
the west coast of Mexico, the Friar Niza encountered
Indians who wore many large shells of mother-of-pearl
about their necks, and farther up towards Cibola, the

1 ' - Streeter, op. cit., p. 45 ; Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit.. p. 23.

133 Humboldt, op. cit., i., p. 191.

134 Kateman, "Catalogue of Antiquities.'" Bakewell, 1855, p. 236.
185 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit.^ p. 510.

' *•• /to/., p. 433.

137 W. H. Holmes, "Art in Shell of the Ancient Americans." Second
Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1883, p. 256.

I2O Shells as evidence of t lie Migrations.

inhabitants wore pearl shells upon their foreheads."
These facts are of interest as recalling the identical use of
pearl shell in some of the Pacific Islands — Torres Straits
Islands, Solomon Islands, etc., — and in Ancient Egypt
(supra p. 74).

According to the reports of travellers, the natives of
Mexico, in the i8th century, still appreciated pearls, using
them along with other jewels to adorn their noses, 'lips,
ears, necks and arms.138

On tlie coast of Venezuela extensive pearl fisheries
have been carried on since before the time of Columbus. On
entering the Gulf of Paria, in 1498, this voyager found the
natives in possession of numerous pearls which they were
wearing on their necks and wrists. They were also seen
engaged in pearl fishing by the Spaniards, and it is curious
to note that the views of the Indians regarding the origin
of the gems were identical with those which obtained for
ages in the Old World. They regarded them as congealed
clewclrops, which had been caught by the gaping oysters.™"

Another famous American pearl fishery is that of the
Gulf of Panama, referred to by many early Spanish
writers. The pearl resources of this region were first
made known by Balboa's immortal journey in 1513
across the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific. Having
reached the Pacific, Balboa proceeded along the coast
and found the Indians in possession of gold and pearls,
the latter being used to decorate their paddles. The
pearl fishery appeared to be the principal source of income
and wealth of the Indian chiefs.14*'

Among the pre-Columbian antiquities found in Ecua-
dor associated with burials was a little box or receptacle

JSS G. A. Cooke, op. (it., ii., p. 141.

13'J Streeter, op. cit.^ p. 223.

140 Kunz and Stevenson, op. cit., p. 235-

Distribution of Pearls a)id Pearl-shell.

cut from a Cassis shell, the cover of which was a fragment
of the valve of the pearl-oyster.141 This and other dis-
coveries of pearls in that country by the same investigator
point to the existence of pearl fisheries on this coast many
centuries ago. It is reported that Manta, in the Province
of Manabi, is the place where the Incas obtained the
splendid gems found in the temples and palaces of Peru
by the Spaniards.14'

The Incas of Peru held a curious belief concerning
pearls ; they regarded them as the " eggs " of the pearl-
producing shell-fish.l4:!

The artificial eyes of their mummies have been spoken
of as pearls, but, according to Tschudi, they are the dried
eyes of the cuttle-fish (Loligo gigas}^

Rivero and Tschudi145 inform us that the Peruvians
were accustomed to ornament their textiles by sewing
upon them leaves of gold and silver, or small pieces of
mother-of-pearl, etc. ; and in speaking of the Huaca of
Misa, they say that a stone idol, with mother-of-pearl, was
formerly met with here, along with mummies, cloths,
pieces of gold and silver, etc.

Much further information could be given concerning
the use of pearls and pearl-shell, but enough evidence has
been collected to demonstrate the nature and extent of
the ideas concerning them. However, mention might be

141 M. II. Saville, " Antiquities of Manabi, Ecuador/' Contributions
to South American Archeology, N. Y., 1910, vol. ii., p. 177.

142 Kunz and Stevenson, op. df., p. 282.

143 \V. |. Dakin, "Pearls,'' Cambridge, 1913, p. 8.

144 Tryon, " Structural and Systematic Conchology," vol. ii., 1883,
p. 24. Cuttle-fish eyes are strung, as pearls for necklaces, on the shores of
Sicily and Naples ; and the natives of the Sandwich Islands have imposed
them on the Russians as pearls. Johnston, op. <//. , p. 62 footnote.

1 45 M. K. Rivero and J. J. von Tschudi," Peruvian Antiquities,"
York and London, 1857, pp. 224 and 266 (Translation by F. L. Hawkif. ','=

122 S /i ells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

made of an interesting reference to the use of pearl-shell
among the Indians of southern Alaska.

In his description of Port des Francais, the celebrated
navigator, M. de la Perouse, remarks on the ability of the
Indians of this neighbourhood to inlay boxes of elegant
form with mother-of-pearl. Unfortunately, he does not
state whether the true pearl-shell was employed, or that
of the abalone (Haliotis). This, however, is not of very
great importance, as the point of chief interest is the fact
that the use of the pearl-shell for inlay purposes is
strongly suggestive of Asiatic influence. Other details,
given by Perouse, concerning the many curious customs
of these same people, such as ' platform burials/ the
' special preservation of the head of the deceased and
cremation of the body/ etc., provide equally suggestive
evidence of this.148

The Haliotis, which also yields good pearls, was
applied to many varied uses by other savage peoples on
the Pacific coast of America, especially in California,
where these pearly shells have been found in great
numbers in the burial places of the ancient tribes. Putnam
records the discovery of several objects inlaid with Haliotis
shell in graves on the islands of Santa Catalina and of
Santa Cruz, the pieces of shell being held in place by a
thin cement of asphaltum.147

The remarkable resemblance between the shell-art
of ancient California and that of the Pacific Islands is
very significant.

140 G. A. Couke, of), at., ii., p. 106 ; see also Mblack, "The Coast
Indians of Southern Alaska ami Northern British Columbia." Kept. U.X.
Nat. Miis., 1887-8 (1890), pp. 225-386

147 F. \\ , Putnam, ''U.S. Geographical Survey west of the lOOih
Meridian : vol vii., Archaeology.'' Washington, 1879, pp. 232-3.

CHAPTER IV.

The Use of Cowry-shells for the Purposes of
Currency, Amulets, and Charms.

Of the many varieties of shells used for currency and
as amulets, the most familiar and extensively employed
are the cowries, especially the money-cowry (Cyprcea
moneta) and the ring-cowry (Cyprcza cumulus) {Figs.
A & />, p. 1 56). The small size, shape, and substance of the
latter renders them peculiarly adapted for use as money,
and no other species of shell or form of shell-money has had
so wide-spread and general use. They are distinguished by
the fact that they can be and are used in a natural state,
most other forms of shell-money being made from portions
of larger species. Though known to science under two dis-
tinct names, the difference between the two forms is so
slight that by some authorities they are considered as
merely the extremes of one variable mollusc.' Both forms
are inhabitants of Indo-Pacific seas, and the specimens
used as currency are derived mainly from the Persian
Gulf, Maldive Islands, Ceylon, the Malabar Coast, the
Sooloo Islands (between the Philippines and Borneo), and
other East Indian Islands ; also from various parts of the
East African coast, ranging from Ras Ilafun (near the

1 Melvill and Standen,y<?w«. of Concho/ogy, ix., 1899, p. 236; S. R.
Roberts, " Monograph of the Family Cypnvidne,'' in Tryon's " Manual of
Conchology," vol. vii., 1885, p. 179.

(123)

n

1 26 Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

Gulf of Aden) to Mozambique. As currency these shells
circulate not only through Southern Asia and certain of
the Pacific Islands, but far into the African continent.

The term cowry, cowrie, or gowrie, is said by Dr. J.
Cosmo Melvill2 to be derived from a Greek word meaning
"a little pig/' and according to Liddell and Scott this was
probably the shell used by the Athenian dicasts in voting.
" Following the example of the Greeks, the Romans
termed these little shells porci or porcult, whilst the French
nowadays term them pou de mer ; and in the word porcelain
we can also trace the same derivation" (Melvill, p. 186).
Deniker,3 however, says the term cowry, cowrie, or cauri,
appears to be a corruption of the Sanskrit word Kaparda,
whence Kavari in the Mahrattan. Murray's dictionary4
gives the Hindi and Urdu equivalents as Kauri (or Kaudi}.
In Monier Williams' "Sanskrit-English Dictionary"5 the
following interpretations are given : " Kaparda, as : a small
shell or cowrie used as a coin and as a die in gambling,
Cyprcea inoneta ; braided and knotted hair, especially that
of S'iva (knotted so as to resemble the cowrie shell).
Kapardin, 7, inl, i : shaggy ; wearing braided and knotted
hair like a cowrie shell ; epithet of Rudra, of Pushan, of
the descendants of Vasishtha and of Durga ; (I) name of
S'iva; name of one of the eleven Rudras."

The Portuguese called the cowry Boudji or Boug/ii ;
the inhabitants of the Maldives, Bolt \ the Siamese, Bios
(which means shell in general in Thai'). By the Arabs it
is known under the name ouoadda or vadaat (Deniker,
op. cit.).

* J. C, Melvill, " A Survey of the genus Cyprcea," Memoirs and Pro c.
Manch. Lit. & Phil. Soc., 4th Ser., vol. I. (1887-8), pp. 184-252.

8 Deniker, "Races et pen pies de la Terre," Paris, 1900, p. 324 foot-
note.

4 Murray, " New English Dictionary."

5 Oxford, 1872, p. 201.

Use of Cowry -shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 127

The use of cowries as currency and as amulets or
charms has been frequently discussed in ethnological
memoirs. From this literature it is clear, though the fact
has not always been realised or sufficiently emphasised by
the authors, that cowries have been for ages regarded and
even reverenced as charms in hunting and fishing, and as
amulets against the evil eye. In fishing, especially in the
Pacific Islands, they are attached to the nets to ensure
luck, being misnamed " net-sinkers " by many writers on
ethnology. They have been, and in many places are
still, associated with marriage, with the object of securing
communion with the spirit of fertility, supposed to be
indwelling in the cowry. In like manner they are used
in some places as offerings to rivers and springs in order
to ensure that the rivers will run and springs flow.

In the following pages an attempt is made to show some
of the many uses of cowries in different parts of the world.
The remarkable manner in which some of the customs, in
which cowries play an important part, crop up in widely-
scattered localities is very significant, and goes far to
prove a common centre of origin for these practices. It
is altogether unreasonable to assume that exactly similar
customs of so peculiar and wholly arbitrary a nature and
identical beliefs concerning the cowry could have arisen
independently among isolated groups of people.

The best and most comprehensive work on the subject of
shell-money is that by Dr. O. Schneider, on "Muschelgeld-
Studien."6 This work contains some 1 80 pages dealing
with the subject, of which about 72 pages are devoted to
an excellent summary of the extensive literature relating
to cowry-currency. Some use has been made of this
work in the compilation of the present chapter, as will

6 Dr. Oskar Schneider, " Muschelgeld-Studien ;; (Nach dem hinter-
lassenen Manuskript bearbeilet von Carl Ribbe). Herausgegeben vom
Verein fur Erdkunde zu Dresden. Dresden, 1905.

128 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

be seen by the footnotes. Much further information, how-
ever, not noted by Schneider, is embodied here, more
especially with regard to the use of cowries in Ancient
Egypt, Eastern Asia, North America, and many other
places.

Cowries appear to have been appreciated and used as
amulets at a very early period in Egypt. Both Cypraa
moneta and Cypnca annulus — the forms so universally
used for currency — have been discovered, along with other
cowries, in Pre-dynastic burials, and both forms have been
found repeatedly in later graves in Egypt and Nubia.
According to Lortet and Gaillard,7 the following species
of cowries have been found at Karnak : Cypr&a vitellus^
C. tigris, C. pantherina, C. camelopardalis ( = melanostoma),
C. arabica, and var. histrio, C. erythneensis, C. caput-serpentisy
C. moneta and C. annulus — all species which occur to-day
in the Red Sea. The larger forms are perforated near
one end as if for use as pendants. The examples of
C, moneta and C. annulus are of peculiar interest from the
fact that they have been rubbed down on the back or
convex side — a custom which is still in vogue among the
East African people to-day. Of further interest is the
figure given by the same authors of a reproduction in
diorite of a Cyprcea moneta. This object, which is per-
forated for suspension, was found in the necropolis of
Rizakat, near Gebelen, Upper Egypt. In a tomb (D 114)
at Abydos, of xviiith dynasty date, large numbers of
Cyprcca annulus were discovered, all of them having been
rubbed down on the back, as at Karnak.8 The same

7 Lortet & Gaillard, "La Faune Momifiee de 1'ancienne Kgypte :
Mol bisques," Arch, Alits. (fllisl. Nat. de Lyon, vol. 10, Lyon, 1909, pp.
108-111; see also List of Species, pp. 310-311.

s T. E. Peet & W. L. S. Loat, " The Cemeteries of Abydos," pt. III.
1912-1913, 35th I\Ieni. Egypt. ExpJor. Fund, 1913, p. 30, pi. xii., figs. 6 & 9.
(The Series is now in the Manchester Museum).

Use of Coivry -shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 129

species, C. annulus is also recorded from Koptos9 and
Nagadeh, probably of pre- or proto-dynastic date ;10 it is
also associated with other objects, such as papyrus charm
pendants, uzat eyes, etc., strung on knotted cords found
at Kafr Ammar (xxiii — xxvth dynasty).11 Reisner in
"The Archaeological Survey of Nubia (i 907-8) "12 gives a
figure of a small cowry, rubbed down on the back, which
is probably C. annulus ; it is recorded as occurring in the
C-group, New Empire, and later graves. Cypraa moneta
occurs in the list of shells found in graves at El Amrah
(Pre-dynastic).13 Other species of cowries discovered in
Egyptian graves are as follows : Cyprcea cam-tea? "Pan-
Graves " at Balabish ;14 C. arabica, Koptos ; C. carneola,
Ballas ; C. erosa, Ballas ; C. caurica, Ballas ? ; C.pantJierina,
Nagadeh ;13 C. arabica var reticulata Toukh, Upper Egypt.1*

These discoveries of cowries in Ancient Egyptian
graves are of great interest as being the earliest evidence
of a special appreciation of these shells. That they were
worn as amulets by the Egyptians cannot be doubted
from the fact that so many are perforated for suspension.

The discovery of so many specimens of the smaller

0 Flinders Petrie, "Six Temples at Thebes, 1896," London, 1897,
chap, x., p. 30.

10 Idem. " Amulets," 1914, p. 27, pi. xiv., f. io7b.

11 Ibid., p. 29, pi. xvii.,f. I3ib, 1310. ; pi. xviii.,f. 1316, I3if. ; pl.xix.,

12 Vol. i., Archceol. Rept., Cairo, 1910, pi. 66, f. 7 and pi. 70, f. i.
The C-group belongs to a period corresponding to the Middle Kingdom in
Egypt.

13 D. Randall-Maciver & A. C. Mace, " El Amrah and Abydos 1899-
1901," London, 1902, p. 49.

14 G. A. Wainwright, " The Excavations at Balabish, " Journ. of Egypt.
ArcJucoL, ii., Oct., 1915, pi. xxv., f . 2 (named from photograph). "Pan-
Graves" are Nubian interments in Egypt and may belong to the period from
2000 B.C. onwards.

15 These five recorded by Flinders Petrie (fide Lortet & Gaillard, op.
dt., pp. 310-3H).

16 De Morgan (fide Lortet & Gaillard, op. cit., p. 310).

1 30 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

form, C. annulus, together in one grave (Di 14) at Abydos,
would seem to suggest the possibility that cowries may
have been adopted as a form of currency at that early
date. According to Del Mar,17 Egypt u appears to have
conducted its exchanges with cowries and scarabs, supple-
mented possibly at later dates by Lydian or Greek coins
for foreign commerce, until the Persian conquest, when it
was supplied with a national coinage, probably of very
limited extent, by Cambyses and Darius." He further
remarks: "The Indians who traded with Egypt used
cowries for money ; the Chinese, who also traded with
Egypt at a very remote period, used * tortoise ' (probably
cowrie) shells for money." (Del Mar, p. 147.)

The money-cowry (Cyprcea moneta) has been found at
the famous cemetery of Koban, upon the northern slope
of the Caucasus, almost midway between the Black and
Caspian Seas, along with bronze and other antiquities.18
It has also been recorded from a sandy layer above the
Tertiaries at Frankfurt-on-Main by Dr. W. Wenz, who
reports the existence of extensive prehistoric settlements
of different periods in the immediate neighbourhood.19
Another interesting record is that of Dr. H. Stolpe, who
states that, among the foreign objects (Curie money, etc.)
found in the Island of Bjorko, were many Upper Silurian
fossils from Gothland, and Cretaceous fossils from Skane,
also some shells of molluscs from the west coast of
Sweden. But the most important shells were five
examples of the money-cowry, Cyprcea moneta:* Speci-

17 Del Mar. "A History of Money," London, 1885, p. 149.

18 "A Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age " (British Museum),
1904, p. 129 ; see also " Materiaux pourl'hist. prim, etnat. de I'homme," 2nd
ser., xiii., June, 1882, p. 260.

19 Nachr. Dtutsch. MaL Ges., 1911, p. 104.

20 Congres internat. (T Anthropol. et <? ArchcoL PrJhist., 1874, vol. ii.,
St ockholm, i876,Ipp. 619-29.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, A mulcts, etc. 1 3 1

mens of the ring-cowry (C. annulus) were found by Dr.
Layard in the ruins of Nimroud,-1 and others of this form,
rubbed down on the back, were met with in graves at
Shusha, in Transcaucasia, associated with numerous car-
nelian beads, perforated animals' teeth, stone implements,
.and bronze and iron objects. "

Another find of special interest was made by Dr.
Truhelka at the pile-dwelling of Donja, Dolina, on the
bank of the Save (Bosnia). Here urn-burials were met
with in under-ground vaults which contained the in-
cinerated remains of bodies and a wealth of grave-goods.
From the valuable nature of the latter it would appear
that the cremated persons were of great social distinction.
The objects comprised fibulae, beads of glass, amber, and
enamel, and other articles characteristic of the late
Hallstatt period. One of the chief objects of interest
was " one urn, which contained a necklet composed of
several hundreds of beads of amber, enamel, coloured
glass, seven cowrie shells, two perforated teeth, and a
large bead of clay without any ornamentation." '^

Dr. Schneider (op. cit., p. 115), quotes many interesting
discoveries of cowries in ancient graves, chiefly in the
neighbourhood of Danzig — the great amber-producing
region. According to this authority they were found at
Marienhausen, in the government of Witebsk, where in
1879, some SO specimens occurred in a grave, doubtless
belonging to Slavonic times ; also in old pagan Lithuanian
graves, at Riigenwalde in Pomerania, in the urn of a
" giant's-grave " at Stolpe, on the well-known Pomerellen

21 S. P. Woodward, " Manual of the Mollusca," Reprint of 4th Ed.,
London, 1890, p. 233.

22 Verhandl. der Berliner Gess. f. Anthrop., 1892, pp. 566-8; 1894,
p. 216.

23 R. Munro, " Paleolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in
Europe," Edinburgh, 1912, p. 473.

132 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

face-urns as earrings ; further, several burnt and fractured
specimens of Cyprcea annulus were found in an urn from
a stone-cist at Jakobsmiihle near Mewe, and in a face-urn
at Rheinfeld near Carthaus ; Cyprcea nwneta in a grave
near Praust, a Cyprcea annulus, prepared as an amulet, at
Seehof near Kulmsee, C. nwneta as earrings on face-urns
at Stangenwalde and at Wilschen in Berent district, as well
as in burnt condition in a face-urn at Czapeln ; finally,
several specimens of a Cyprcea, too badly damaged by fire
for exact specific determination, occurred in a face-urn at
Bockau on the river Radaune, West Prussia.

In an essay by Dr. H. Conventz, of Danzig, on the
introduction of cowries and related sea-shells as ornament
in West Prussia in prehistoric times,"4 further mention is
made of discoveries, which he refers to the first century
B.C., of Cyprcea annulus in face-urns at Rheinfeld, in
Carthaus district, Suckschin, in Higher Danzig district,
and Jakobsmiihle, in Marienwerder district, as well as in
an ordinary urn at Fronza, in Marienwerder district ; and
of Cyprcea nwneta in the ears of urns from Wilschen, Berent
district, and Stangenwalde, Carthaus district, and in a face-
urn from Praust, near Danzig ; further, of " Roman times,"
which corresponds to the ist century A. D., Cyprcea annulus
attached to bronze-strip as a charm, found near Elbing
and Seehof, in Briesen district ; finally, of the " Arabic-
norse epoch," a perforated C. nwneta on the neck of a
skeleton in the grave-field near the Grutschno Burgwalle,
jn the Schwetzer district.

Cowries of larger dimensions than Cyprcea moneta
and C. annulus have been met with in pre-historic pit-
dwellings and Saxon graves in our own country; in
Franco-Merovingian graves in France ; in the Gallo-

-* Correspondenzblatl d. deutsch. Geselt.f. A. E. n. L7., xxxiii. no. 2,
1902, (fiiff Schneider, op. cit., p. 115)

Use of Cowry-shells fof Currency ^ Amulets, etc. 133

Roman necropolis of Trion, at Lyons ; and in Pompeii, as
well as in other places.

The complete outer lip of Cyprcea tigris^ a species
occurring in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea, has been
recorded by J. R. le B. Tomlin, from a pre-historic pit-
dwelling at St. Mary Bourne, Hants.25 The same hand-
some species is recorded by M. Locard from the Gallo-
Rornan necropolis of Trion, and by Monterosato from
Pompeii." Cypr<za pantherina^ a Red Sea shell, has been
found in Saxon women's graves, excavated on Kingston
Down, and Sibertswold Down, in Kent,'27 and in a grave
near Wingham, Kent.'8 It has also been recorded (under
the name Cyprcea vinosa) by Dr. Ph. Dautzenburg from the
Franco-Merovingian necropolis of Nesles-lez-Verlincthun
(Canton cle Samer).-9 Dr. Dautzenburg also refers in the
same paper to a record by M. 1'Abbe Henri Debout of the
presence of this shell (erroneously referred to C. arabicd)
in a sepulchre at Tardinghen ; and from Dr. Tiberi's
Memoir on the shells met with in the excavations at
Pompeii,30 we learn that many examples of this species
were found, and that the shell in question was an amulet
which the women carried in order to prevent sterility.

In a footnote in Dr. Schneider's paper (op. cit., p. 116),
reference is made to a description, by Dr. Koehl, of
Merovingian graves at Weisoppenheim, near Worms,
where cowries were found alongside the bodies of several
women, either hanging from a girdle, or sewn to their
dresses. Unfortunately, the specific name of the shell is

-5 Journal of Conchology, vol. 13, 1912, p. 251.

-c fidt Tomlin, op. cit.

"-' Fausseu's " Inventorium Sepulchrale," 1856, pp. 68, 92 & 133. (See
also J. W. Jackson, Jourti. of Conch., vol. 13, 1912, p. 307, for discussion
of species).

2S " Archreologia/' vol. 30, p. 551.

-° Jonrn, dc Comhyliologie, vol. liv., 1906, p. 260, figs. I & 2.

30 " Le Conchiglie Pompeiane," Napoli, 1879.

1 34 Shells as evidence of tlie Migrations.

not given. In the same footnote mention is made of the
discovery of a large Cyprcea in an old German grave at
Entibiihl, and of an Indian Ocean Tritoninm^ filled with
worked flints at Brunswick.

A further discovery of a shell from the Indian Ocean,
Ovulnm ovum, closely akin to the cowries, was made in a
Gothlandic tomb. This specimen had a hole at one end
in which was still fixed a little ring of bronze wire.32

In Crete, black cowries, probably dark forms of
Cyprcea pantherina. were found in excavating the rooms
of Mycenaean houses.'*

In a paper on " Cave Explorations at Gibraltar in
September, 1910," :i4 Dr. W. L. H. Duckworth records the
discovery of a Mediterranean cowry, Cyprcea pyrum, in
excavating Cave S. The specimen is remarkable on
account of an artificial perforation at one end, as if for
suspension as an amulet. On the evidence of the human
remains and the pottery found, the cave is assigned to
the Neolithic period. In the same cave were found
specimens of Purpura hczmastoina with the apical parts
fractured in a curious manner, suggesting that the mollusc
had been used for the preparation of its distinctive
product, the Tyrian Purple:''

A perforated specimen of Cyprcva pyruui is recorded
by Lartet and Christy36 from La Madelaine cave, Perigord,
along with other perforated shells and teeth of animals,
but in this case the cowry is said to be a fossil, probably

s 1 ? Triton, the shell employed as a trumpet in many places.
32 Hans Hildebrand, " The Industrial Arts of Scandinavia,'' (South
Kensington Museum Art Handbook), 1882, p. 40.

:: Ann. Brit. Sch. AtJiens, ix. (1902-3), pp. 291 and 335.

34 Journ. Roy. Anthrop. Inst.t xli., 1911, p. 362, pi. xl., fig. 4, 5.

35 See chapter i.

36 " Reliquuv Aquitamca;,'' London, 1875, P- 4$ (Description of the
Plates), pi. v., fig. 15.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 135

from the Faluns of Touraine. Mention is also made of
a collection of objects from the Cave of Bruniquel, com-
prising carnivore teeth and perforated marine shells,
including a Cypnea an inch in length, not improbably
derived from the Miocene beds of the Garonne.37

Since Christy's diggings in Laugerie-Basse,38 this cave
has yielded many other interesting objects, including two
species of Mediterranean cowries, perforated for use as
pendants. Particulars of the discovery of the cowries
are given in a paper by Massenat and others39 dealing
with the finding of a human skeleton (the so-called
homme ecrasse) in this cave. The latter seems to have
been a ceremonial interment in the contracted posture.
The situation of the objects which accompanied the
skeleton was studied with scrupulous attention and a
score of shells were found. These were determined by
Mortillet as belonging to two different species of Mediter-
ranean cowries, Cypr<za pyruin, Gmelin (or rufa Lam.), and
Cyprcea lurida L. The most interesting fact concerning
them is that they were arranged in pairs upon the body ;
two pairs on the forehead, one near each humerus, four in
the region of the knees and thighs, two upon each foot.
The discoverer dismisses the idea of a necklace or bracelets
and suggests they were intended to adorn a garment
Each cowry was pierced with a notch.

Cowries have also been found in the celebrated Men-
tone Caves alongside human skeletons, which can with

•'7 Ibid., p. 179 (Text).

88 Ibid., p. 288 (Text).

30 E. Massenat, Ph. Lalande & Cartailhac, "Decouverte d'un squelette
humain de 1'age du renne a Laugerie-Basse (Dordogne)." Comptes Kendus
de FAcad. des Sciences, vol. 74, 1872, pp. 1060-3 ; also Paul Girod and E.
Massenat, " Les Stations de 1'Age du Renne dans les vallees de la Vezere
et de la Correze— -Laugerie-Basse," Paris, 1900, pp. 24-5. Sollas ("Ancient
Hunters," 2nd Ed., 1915, p. 509, fig. 288) gives a figure (after Cartailhac)
of this interesting burial, with the associated shells.

136 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

considerable confidence be correlated with those found in
the valley of La Vezere, at Laugerie-Basse, Cro-Magnon,
Gourdan, and Chancelade. Villeneuve40 records, amongst
other shells, one Cyprcea, from an occupation level (Foyer
D), 3m. 15. from the surface, in La Grotte des Enfants.
The specific name, unfortunately, is not given. On the
same level a remarkable find was made of Cassis mfa, an
Indian Ocean shell.41

At Barma Grande, another of the Mentone Caves,
various kinds of ornaments of teeth and bone, and perfor-
ated shells of Nassa neritea, were found, in 1892, near the
head of one of the skeletons discovered there ; but the
most interesting and remarkable find was that " on each
thigh bone above the knee was a perforated cowry."42 The
body is said to be that of an old man. It is of interest
to note that all the skulls found here are stated to be of

40 " Les Grottes de Grimaldi (Baousse — Rousse)," Tome i., Fasc. i.
" Historique et Description." By M. L. de Villeneuve (p. 65). (Impri-
merie de Monaco, 1906).

41 Ibid., Tome i. Fasc. 2. "Geologic et Paleontologie." By Prof.
Marcellin Boule (p. 123) ; In a footnote to this page, G. Dollfus remarks :
" Cassis rufa L., an Indian Ocean shell, is represented in the collection at
Monaco by two fragments ; one was found in the lower habitation level D ;
the other is probably of the same origin. The presence of this shell is
extraordinary as it has no analogue in the Mediterranean, neither recent
nor fossil ; there exists no species in the North Atlantic or off Senegal with
which it could be confounded. The fragments have the traces of the reddish
colour preserved and are not fossil ; one of them presents a notch which
has determined a hole that seems to have been made intentionally. The
species has not yet been found in the Gulf of Suez nor in ihe raised-beaches
of the Isthmus. M. Jousseaume has found it in the Gulf of Tadjoura at
Aden, but it has not yet been encountered in the Red Sea nor in the raised-
beaches of that region. The common habitat of Cassis rufa is Socotra,
besides the Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, New Caledonia and perhaps
Tahiti. The fragments discovered at Mentone have therefore been brought
from a great distance, at a very ancient epoch, by prehistoric man."

*2 Munro, " Palaeolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Furope."
Edinburgh, 1912, p. 163. [At p. 235, perforated teeth and shells, Arassa,
Cypr<ca, Fectunculus, etc., are mentioned as being found at the Rock-shelter
of Cap-Blanc (Laussel), Dordogne].

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 137

the Cro-Magnon type, and that all the bodies had been
definitely interred. The discovery of cowries and the
relation of these to the body, forms an interesting parallel
to the Langerie-Basse burial referred to above.

The association of perforated cowry shells with men
belonging to the Cro-Magnon group is not without interest
when it is remembered that these people were members
of our own species — Homo sapiens, and quite distinct from
the earlier Neanderthal people. That they were men
capable of formulating ideas and endowed with an artistic
sense is unquestionable. The skeletons of this race all
seem to have been ceremonially interred, which certain
writers regard as implying that they were not without
some idea of religion. The fact that they used perforated
shells, teeth, and pendants, as amulets, also supports this
conclusion. But, of course, the validity of the inference
depends upon what is meant by the term " religion."

How this race came into the south of Europe and
where it came from is not easy to determine ; but the
slender evidence at present available disposes us to look to
North Africa as its immediate source. It seems possible
that these people may have been an early sporadic
invasion from, or at least have been in direct or indirect
contact with, the region where civilisation first developed—
the valley of the Nile and Western Asia.

The skull of the Cro-Magnon man has so many points
of similarity to that of Neolithic man in England, that,
in defiance of the archaeological evidence, the former race
was judged at one time to belong to the Neolithic period.
Leading authorities now agree in relegating it to an
earlier time, which includes the Magdalenian period.41

43 The culture of the Cro-Magnon race is certainly quite distinct from
that of the Lower Palaeolithic people — Neanderthal man, and on this account
Dr. Elliot Smith has suggested the term " Xeoanthrophic phase of culture,"
in order to give specific emphasis to the profound break in human history

138 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

As Dr. G. Elliot Smith has pointed out,44 many
similarities exist between Magdalenian and the later
Azilian implements, and also of both of these to those
of Pre-dynastic Egypt. This suggests the possibility of
the Magdalenian period in the west being approximately
contemporaneous with the pre-dynastic period in Egypt,
and that the Neolithic period in Western Europe did not
begin long before the third millennium B.C.

In connection with the above it is of interest to note
that the cowry is frequently associated with pre-dynastic
burials in Egypt.

The numerous discoveries of cowries detailed above
serve to show the migrations or intercourse of early
peoples. They are not to be regarded as evidence of the
shells, even the smaller kind, having been employed as
currency in the localities where they were found, nor
indeed are they to be looked upon as having been worn
from purely aesthetic motives. Their presence may be
explained by the part cowries played in early times as
symbolic of the generative forces of nature. The shell
itself was not worshipped, but rather regarded as an
attribute of some goddess. It was clue probably to this
fact that the cowry was known to the ancients under the
appellation of " Concha Venerea," — the shell of Venus.45
As pointed out by Dr. J. C. Melvill,46 the generic name of

between the Lower and Upper Paleolithic. The Lower Paleolithic, he
suggests, may be known as the Palreanthropic, the Upper as the commence-
ment of the Neoanthropic, Age. (See " The American Museum Journal/'
vol. xvi., May, 1916, p. 325.)

4 Abstract of paper on "The Commencement of the Neolithic Phase
of Culture," read before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society,
April 4th, 1916.

45 As well as the goddess of love, the word Venus signifies the highest
throw of the dice. (Horace, 'Carmina,' 2, 7, 25.) It is not surprising,
therefore, that we find the cowry— the shell of Venus, used in so many
games of chance.

46 "Survey of Genus Cypriea,"' op. f/V., p. 184.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 139

this group of shells, " Cyprrea, or more classically Cypria,
is derived from one of the many attributes of Aphrodite,
owing, doubtless, to her worship not only having been
inaugurated, but for long years principally centralized, in
Cyprus, then a luxuriant and smiling island, teeming with
industrial wealth. Horace47 addresses her as 'Diva potens
Cypri/ and Tibullus,48 when apostrophizing the goddess,
thus : ' Et faveas concha, Cypria, vecta tua.' "

As previously remarked, cowries were worn as amulets
by the women of Pompeii in order to prevent sterility. The
presence of these shells in women's-graves in France and
the South of England seems to point to the prevalence
of the same ideas in the Middle Ages.

In the 1 8th century the custom of wearing a large
cowry as an amulet or charm was prevalent among Ken-
dure Tartar women and girls.49 And in the neighbourhood
of Naples, cowries, it is stated, are still worn by the poorer
class.50 Money-cowries are used by the Bedouin women
of the Hadramaut, South Arabia, to adorn their girdles ;51
also by the women of the races of the Volga region, as
breast and forehead ornaments by the Tshuwash and
Mordvins, and as necklaces by the Tsheremis. They are
also to be seen on the necks of the Kirghis women, and
on the curious head-dresses of the Bashkir women ;5~ and

47 Horace, Od., I, 3, I.

48 Tibullus, III., 3, 4.

49 G. A. Cooke, "System of Universal Geography," vol. i. (1801),
p. 448.

50 Faussett, " Inventorium Sepulchrale," 1856, p. 68.

51 Schneider, op. cit., p. 117 ; Strabo, bk. xvi., ch. iv., par. 17 (Bonn's
Ed., vol. iii., p. 202), speaking of the Troglodyte of the Arabian Gulf says:
" The women carefully paint themselves with antimony. They wear about
their necks shells, as a protection against fascination by witchcraft/'

62 Schneider, op. cit.^ p. 117; Ratzel, "History of Mankind/' iii.,
p. 327, gives a figure of one of these Bashkir head-dresses ornamented with
small cowries.

140 Shells as evidence ftf the Migrations.

in England they are occasionally noticed worn in long
strings by travelling gypsies.

According to Professor Ridgeway,53 cowries are still
used, combined with a Christian medal, in Corfu as a
child's amulet ; and also in Montenegro.

In the following pages frequent references will be
found to the use of cowry-shells as amulets of magical
import in Africa, Asia, Pacific Islands, and elsewhere.

The custom of decorating the trappings of horses with
cowries, doubtless with the object of averting the evil eye,
is found in Persia as well as in India (where elephants
carry such ornament), in Hungary and in Norway.
And according to Ridgeway (op. cit., p. 248), Mr. F. W.
Hasluck, when travelling in the Morea in 1907, saw a boar's
tusk charm on a horse in Triphylia, with a pendant of a
cross formed of four cowries sewn on leather.

Lane, in his " Modern Egyptians," r>4 informs us that
cowries are still used by the people of Egypt, and are
regarded as a protection against the evil eye. With this
object they are often attached to the trappings of camels,
horses, and other animals, as well as to the caps of children.
Pickering55 remarks that on ascending the Nile to Kenneh,
the modern capital of the Thebaid, about 30 miles below the
site of ancient Thebes, cowries were seen used as money
by market women of the Ethiopian [? Soudanese] race.
Culin, in his "Chess and Playing Cards,"56 reports that in
the streets of "Cairo" at the Columbian Exposition was a
family of Bishareen from the Eastern desert, near Assouan,

63 W. Ridgewuy, "The Origin of the Turkish Crescent," Journ. Roy.
Anthrop. Inst., G. B. and I., vol. 38 (1908), p. 248, pi. 21, fig. 23.

54 E. W. Lane, "Modern Egyptians," vol. i., 1849, p. 343.

55 Pickering, "Races of Man" (Bonn's I'M.), 1863, as quoted by
Stearns, " Ethno-conchology," Kept. U.S. Nat. J/«j., 1887, (1889), p. 303.

6< Stewart Culin, "Chess and Playing Girds," AV/A U.S. Nat. Mus.,
1896, (1898), p. 815 footnote.

Use of Cozvry -shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 141

whose headman practised soothsaying with cowries. He
threw several cowry-shells, and made his prediction from
the manner in which they fell.

At Sennaar, in the Soudan, cowry-ornament still
obtains to-day among the Hassanieh Arabs. Caillarud,
in the 2Oth year of last century, saw cowries ornamenting
the fringed girdle of the young girls in Sennaar. Accord-
ing to Carl Ritter, they are still found as trimmings for
women's girdles in Abyssinia ;57 and Haldeman58 describes
a curious Abyssinian necklace composed of European
beads, cowry-shells, bits of brass, copper coins, etc.

According to Schneider (op. cit., p. 173), a large leather
object from Somaliland, richly ornamented with cowries,
is in the Dresden Museum,5" and a similar object, orna-
mented in the same way, was brought from Somaliland
by Riebeck in 1883. That the cowry was in use here in
early times is proved by the discovery of Cyprcea annnlus,
along with glass, enamel, stone and other objects, in the
ruins of Bender Abbas, near Berbera. The age of these
ruins is still problematic ; they may belong to " Persian
times."60 Presumably this refers to the period of the
Persian conquest of Egypt in the sixth century B.C.

In the Upper Nile region cowries, rubbed down on
their backs, are used by many negro peoples. The Lango,
Latuka, Lur, Shuli and Nuer have very many cowry-
ornaments, more especially on their head-coverings. Ac-
cording to Ratzel (pp. tit., iii., p. 30), the head-coverings of
the Shuli and Lango " consist of strong bass-matting, close
set with concentric rows of cowries, with a woven blunt
appendage, shaped either like a flat conical cup or like a

67 vSchneider, op. cit., p. 173.

r>s S. S. Haldeman, " United States Geographical Surveys West of the
looth Meridian," vol. vii., Archceology, 1879, P- 263.

fla See also Ratzel, op. cit., ii., fig. 14 of plate facing p. 533.
«° Schneider, op. cit., p. 118.

142 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

helmet enclosing the head and hanging down the back ot
the neck" (see also Ratzel, op. cit., i., p. 101). Among the
Latukas and their kinsfolk heavy wicker helmets, with
crests recalling Greek forms, are used ; these are orna-
mented with a ring of cowries all round (Ratzel, iii.,
p. 30, and p. 41, fig. /). Among the Djibba tribe of the
Sobat country, one of the Nile tributaries, cowries appear
to be associated with head-hunting, as among the Nagas of
Assam (infra, p. I/2J. Like these latter people, the Djibba
warriors wear the hair taken from the decapitated heads of
slam enemies, in addition to wearing goat-skin dresses,
ivory armlets and belts of cowries* By the Jnrs, beads and
cowry-sJiells are considered as essential at betrothals?'1

In East Africa rubbed-down cowries63 are used largely
by the Akikuyu, Kavirondo, Akamba and Masai peoples.
Kavirondo men are noted for their peculiar and elaborate
head-dresses made of these shells. Among the Akamba,
Masai and other tribes, cowries appear to be associated
with unmarried girls (as among the Chettis of Southern
India, infra p. 170). The young unmarried girls of the
Akamba tribe wear belts and aprons adorned with beads
and cowries ; but these ornaments are discarded after the
birth of the first child. The Masai women also wear a
peculiar head-band covered with cowries during the
period of "engagement."64 The Lumbwa girls' aprons, too,
are similarly adorned, doubtless with the same sig-
nificance.65 Ridgeway, in his paper on u The Origin of

61 Brown, " Races of Mankind," iii., p. 16.

62 Schneider, op. cit., p. 173.

63 On the East side of Africa, the ring-cowry (C. annulus] appears to
be the form universally used.

64 "Women of all Nations," pp. 266 and 268.

65 Specimens in the Manchester Museum; see also Journ. Anthrop.
Inst., vol. 33 (1903), pi. xxix., for illustration of a Lumbwa girl wearing one
of these cowry-ornamented aprons.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 143

the Turkish Crescent" (op. cit.y p. 253, pi. 25), figures and
describes two curious head-dresses worn by the Ja-luo of
Kavirondo, one consisting of ram's horns and cowries, the
other of reed-buck's horns and cowries. These remind us,
Ridgeway remarks, of the combination of boars' tusks and
cowries in Greece (supra p. 140). Captain R. F. Burton
gives us an interesting account of the cowry-trade of the
regions north of the 'Land of the Moon,' in his description
of " The Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa.86
The cowries, he reports, are collected from various places
between Ras Hafun and Mozambique, the trade being
in the hands of Moslem hucksters. They are purchased
on the mainland by a curious specimen of the ' round-
trade'; money is not taken, so the article is sold measure
for measure of holcus grain. From Zanzibar the use of
cowries spreads in two directions ; one to the regions
north of the ' Land of the Moon ' where they form the
currency, though they are also occasionally in demand as
an ornament in Unyamwesi ;C7 the other to the West
African coast. That the collecting of cowries on the East
African coast dates from ancient times is evident from
the list of articles of export at Rhapta in the first century
A.D. Among the articles mentioned in the " Periplus "68
as exported from this place — the Quiloa or Kilwa of
modern times — is an item, NcifTrXfo? dX/yo? (lit. little sea-
shell), a term which has given rise to some discussion.
Vincent89 says : " It seems to be an inferior tortoise-shell
from the context" (which he translates, "tortoise-shell of
superior kind, but not equal to the Indian ; and a small

68 fount. Roy. Geog. Soc. Lond., vol. 29, 1859, p. 448.

67 See Ratzel, op. cit., ii., plate facing p. 533, fig. I, for cowry orna-
mented head-dress of Wanyamwesi.

68 Vincent, "The Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the
Indian Ocean," London, 1807, vol. ii., p. 172.

69 Ibid., p. 748.

144 Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

quantity of that species called nauplius"). " It may,
however, be a different commodity." As cowries are an
article of commerce on this coast to-day, the suggestion
naturally presents itself of interpreting the term as a
reference to shells (? cowries) intended for ornament.

In Uganda, cowries have been a recognised form of
currency from an early date. According to the Rev. John
Roscoe,70 the standard of currency among the Baganda
was set by the value of the cow. During the reign of
Suna, he tells us, a cow was sold for 2,500 cowry-shells ;
a goat for 500 ; a fowl for 25 ; a large cock for 50 ; and
an ivory tusk weighing sixty-two pounds was valued at
1,000 cowry-shells.71 Cooking-pots were priced according
to size ; a large pot was sold for 200 cowries, small ones
for 20 or 30 cowries. A milk-pot cost 60 or even 100
cowries ; a tobacco pipe from 5 to 10 shells ; and a water-
pot from 40 to 50 shells.7- " Before the introduction of
cowry-shells," Roscoe informs us, " a blue bead (nsincla)
was used ; this was very rough and badly made, but it
was considered to be of great value ; one bead was of
equal value with one hundred cowry-shells. Still earlier,
before the introduction of the bead, a small ivory disc
was used, known as sanga ; one of these discs was valued
at one hundred cowry-shells. When the cowry-shell was
first introduced, which was probably in the reign of King
Semakokiro, two cowry-shells would purchase a woman." 7S
By these same people cowry-shells have also been used
from the first in religious and other ceremonies. One
of the many interesting uses, mentioned by Roscoe,
is their employment in the decoration of an amulet
called Luzalot which partakes of the nature of a fetish,

70 Roscoe, "The Baganda/' London, 1911.
7 ! Ibid. , p. 456.
7'-' Ibid., p. 455-
7:: Ibid., p. 457-

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 145

and is designed to insure fecundity. This consists of
a piece of wood sewn into a small cat-skin bag
ornamented with cowry-shells, which is worn round the
waist, so that the amulet rests in front of the wearer.74
Divination is also practised by means of pieces of
leather decorated with cowry-shells. They are also
offered to propitiate the spirits of trees ; and sent by the
king as presents to each of the important deities. Another
most important use is to decorate the jawbones of deceased
kings. Some five months after the death and burial of a
king the tomb is entered and the head severed from the
body and brought away. The jawbone is then removed
and placed in an ant hill until all the flesh is eaten away,
the skull meanwhile being given special burial in a place
near the tomb. The jawbone, after being cleansed and
washed in beer and milk, is wrapped in fine barkcloth
which has been rubbed with butter, and is decorated with
beads and cowry-shells collected during the king's lifetime
from people succeeding to chieftainships. A temple is
then built to receive the decorated jawbone and umbilical
cord of the late king, and also the umbilical cord of the
ex-queen.7' At the end of the royal mourning cowry-
shells are thrown on the fire as if they were fuel ; this is
also done at ceremonies to prolong the king's life.™

In the marriage ceremonies of the Baganda these
shells form an important part of the dowry, the bridegroom
having to provide as many as two thousand five hundred.77
On the birth of twins it is the custom for the grandmother
to make each twin a present of cowry-shells, and everyone
coming to see them throws cowry-shells into a basket
^ ibid., P. 331.

75 Ibid., pp. 109-10.

76 7bid., p. 1 08.

77 Ibid., pp. 88-9.

146 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

placed to receive these offerings.78 On the death of a twin
the body is embalmed and the ghost is caught by the
medicine man and made up into a "twin" (mulongo). To
do this, the man goes by night into a space in front of the
house, spreads a barkcloth on the ground, kills a white
fowl, cuts out its tongue, and places it on the barkcloth ;
he then watches for the first insect that alights on the
loarkcloth, catches it, and wraps it up with the fowl's
tongue, saying that the ghost has come back again. The
insect and fowl's tongue are then made up into a " twin "
decorated with cowry-shells and beads, put into a wooden
pot and preserved.79

In addition to the above uses, cowries are employed
by the Baganda to decorate the royal drum. Drum-sticks
made from human arm-bones are also ornamented with
them, as well as the stool of the war-god Kibuka.80

According to Stuhlmann, cowries were used in
Karagwe, on the west side of Victoria Nyanza, to orna-
ment the leather-cuff which serves as a protection of the
left wrist at archery, and in Unyora, north-west of the
above lake, the most important personage wears, as token
of his rank, a strip of cow-hide adorned with cowries and
coloured glass beads. The Wassongona and Wahuma
have cowries as neck-ornaments, and the young girls of
the latter wear a hip-cord of cowry-shells and beads, which
are sewn on leather strips.81

According to Schweinfurth the Madi and Niam Niam
wear cowry-ornaments, but they do not appear to be of
great importance among the latter people. Cowries were
much sought after in former times by the Bongo, but they
have long since fallen out of the category of objects
78 ibid., p. 71.

70 Ibid., p. 124.

30 Ibid., pp. 26, 214 and 306, fig. 49.

81 Schneider, op. dt., p. 172.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 147

of value.8' Schweinfurth also depicts a fashion in hair
among the Monbuttus, by which the head is surrounded
with a regular saint's halo. The hair, in plaits, is spread
out round the whole head and fastened to a hoop adorned
with cowry-shells.^

The Wavira of the upper Ituri wear in their ears a
wooden plug with cowries at both ends ; this object is in
the Lunda Empire an amulet hung by a string from the
neck.*4 Cowries were also seen by Junker used as orna-
ments by the Bagarambo on the Welle River. And
Thonner reports cowries in common use by the Mog-
wandi north of the upper Dua and by the neighbouring
races ; by the Mobali in the hair, and by a Banza man
from Bogola as a neck-chain. On the middle and upper
Ubangi and on the Welle to its source cowries pass current
as money ; they are also in use as such by the Basoko
inhabiting the region of the Congo between Stanley Falls
and the Aruwimi confluence. In 1886 Lenz saw them
used for ornament by the Nkaia at Riba Riba above the
Stanley Falls, as well as in other places. According to
Johnston cowries were made use of as small-change
everywhere on the Upper Congo. Large numbers of them
were placed in the graves with the dead. In Nyangwe
they were in use along with other objects of barter in
Livingstone's (1871), Cameron's (1874), Stanley's (1876)
and Pogge's time, and often served as presents for the
chiefs and for purchasing necessary articles of food in the
districts through which these and other travellers passed.
In Uhombo, between the Congo and Lake Tanganyika,
they were the current money in Stanley's time. At Mpala,

82 Ibid., p. 173 ; and Schweinfurth, " The Heart of Africa," London,
1873, vol. i., p. 299 ; ii., p. 9.

83 Ratzel, op. dt., iii., p. 69; Schweinfurth, op. cit., ii., p. 7 (Text-
figure).

84 Ratzel, op. cit., iii., p. 69.

148 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika, they were seen
by Richard as head-ornaments or sewn on straps ; he also
observed them in use by the Nollo Nollo, living north
thereof, to ornament the forehead, neck and wrist ; in
the latter case, two shells were worn attached to the
middle of a thin strap, probably an amulet of some kind.
Among the Warua of the Upper Congo similar ornaments
were noticed.88

On the middle Congo cowries are a recognised cur-
rency about Lukolela, Ngowe, Matumba Lake, etc., being
used by the Balolo people. On the Mongalla, Thonner,
in 1896, found cowries the necessary legal tender for con-
tinuing his journey up the river and for the purchase of
food-stuffs. Wissmann, Wolf, and other travellers found
them highly estimated in the Kassai-Sankuru basin.
According to Wolf, in 1885, these shells together with a
black and white striped glass bead were used as barter-
material by the Baluba people of this region.80

In the Lunda Empire, the wooden plug set with
cowries at both ends, which the Wavira wear in their ears,
is hung by a string from the neck as an amulet.87

According to Magyar, cloth in Kimbundaland, about
1850, was reckoned at from 25 to 50 cowries, or busio-
shells, per ell or yard, according to the distance from the
coast ; and this same observer tells us that the women of
the Mondumbe, inwards from Benguela, ornament their
hair with small white cowries (C. moneta ? Oliva ?Y*

In describing the Ovambo, Ratzel (pp. cit., ii., p. 541)
informs us that they barter ivory for beads, iron, copper,
shells, and cowries, with the Portuguese-speaking black
traders on the further side of the Cunene River. Such

s5 Schneider, op. cit.y various pages.

*6 Ibid.

S7 Ratzel, o/>. cil., iii., p. 69.

s" Schneider, op. cit., pp. 159 and 172.

Use of Cowry -sheik for Currency, Amulets •, etc. 149

articles as they obtain in this way, and do not themselves
need, they trade away to the south and east. On another
page (p. 553) of the same volume, he gives an illustration
(after Serpa Pinto) of Kimbande-Ganguellas with cowry-
ornament. It is of interest to note that the shells (C.inoiieta
or annnlus), are employed by the women and girls as a
decoration in connection with their curious method of
hair-dressing ; the man shown in the illustration has no
such ornament. According to the observation of Waitz,
cowries were usual as ornament among Hottentots and
Kaffirs.89 Unfortunately no indication is given as to
whether these were the small white money cowries, or
some other. From Ratzel's figure (ii., p. 268) of a
Bushman amulet, consisting of large cowries attached to
a sort of belt, it would appear that cowries other than
those so universally employed for currency are used also
in the south. It is impossible to define the species from
the illustration, but it appears to be a large spotted one,
probably C. tigris, whose nearest habitat is off the East
African coast, in the neighbourhood of Zanzibar.

Returning north, to the French Congo, we find that,
according to Foret90 the races on the Tern and on the
Ivindo use cowries as ornaments. Lenz, in 1876, found
them so employed in the hinterland of Gaboon. Kund
also reports cowry-ornaments for the neck among the
Bateke, not far from Leopoldville. Dennett"1 figures a
Bavili "guardian fetish," called Mpembe, consisting of a
wooden image in the shape of a man, the eyes of which
are cowry-shells with the apertures outwards. Ratzel

S<J Schneider, op. a'/,, p. 172: According to Peringuey (Ann. S. Afr.
Jfus., viii, 1911, p. 104), Sparrman mentions and figures Hottentot orna-
ments of marine shells (Nerita albicilla ?) and a leather head-dress adorned
with three spaced rows of " cowries."

yo Le Mouvement Geographique, 1902, No. 9 (fide Schneider).

01 R. E. Dennett, "At the Back of the Black Man's Mind," London,
1906, p. 91, pi. 5.

1 50 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

(pp. cit., iii., p. 83, fig. i.), also gives an illustration of a
Beneki fetish with cowry-eyes, which has a strong resem-
blance to the Bavili example.

In the Cameroon district the use of cowries as currency
seems to have ceased, but the shells are applied as orna-
ment. Zintgraff writes that in Adamawa and the frontier-
land such was the case. The Bali warriors were allowed
to carry a bandolier upon which the cowries were sewn in
two rows, the channelled opening of the shell being to the
outside. They were also seen arranged in cross-form on
a small, flat, cloth packet, which was worn on a string
from the neck, resembling the amulet which the Mahom-
medan wears. Another interesting use noted by Zint-
graff is that by the chief of the Bafut, living on the
Adamawa frontier, who had utilized cowries as a sort of
mosaic on the floor of his spacious palm-wine hall.92 The
shells are also worked into the coiffure of the women in
the Cameroons, as many as two hundred being required.9'5

We now reach the chief zone of circulation of the
cowry — the western Sudan and Guinea coast. For many
centuries the shells have passed as a means of currency
throughout the greater part of this region, and in many
places they have also played an important part in religious
and other ceremonies.

Our earliest knowledge of their employment in this
region as currency dates from the i/j-th century, when the
Arab traveller Ibn Batiita saw them in use for transacting
business at Kawkaw (Gao or Gagho) on the Niger.94
Cadamosto, who visited Cape Verde in 1455, also noted
the white shells, " porcellete or cowries," used in exchange

02 Schneider, op. ciL, p. 171.

us Joyce and others, " Women of all Nations,"' p. 351.

04 "The Travels of Ibn Batula," translated by the Rev. Samuel Lee,
London, 1829, p. 241.

Use of Cowry -shells for Currency* Amulets, etc. 151

between the Arabs and the natives of the interior.95 Leo
Africanus,9* who wrote at the beginning of the i6th century,
mentions in his description of Timbuctoo that " the
natives of this place use small mussel-shells or snail-shells,
which were brought from Persia, of which 400 equal one
ducat, and six and two-thirds go to a Roman ounce." In
Benin, at the end of the I5th century, according to
Pereira, cowries, under the name Iguru, were in currency.
In the description of Commodore Stewart's embassy
journey to Mekines (Mequinez) in 172 r, it is stated : " The
goods, which they (the Moroccans) convey to Guinea,
are salt, cowries, etc. — Cowries are small shells, which are
brought from the East Indies, and they are current instead
of ready money, and as such have the highest value."

From Timbuctoo and the Upper Niger98 the territory
of the cowry-currency extends to. Lake Chad, with wide
spaces here and there in which the cowries do not, or only
in a minor degree, pass as currency. Barth mentions
three such places within the great bend of the Niger, —
Aribinda, where the shells had no value, and Isaye (Ise)
and Bambara, where they were employed only in the sale
of milk. The places noted by Barth as having the cowry-
currency were Kabara, near Timbuctoo, Saraiyamo, Kubo,
Dore, Bundore, Sinder and Say on the Niger ; Gando,
Sokoto, Wurno, Bamurna, Badarana, Kammane, Bunka,
Katsena, Kano, Lamisso, Kukameirua and Gummel, all in
the northern part of Sokoto State ; Tasawa, immediately
north of the Haussa region ; as well as Zinder, Wushek,

95 Deniker, " Les Races et les Peuples de la Terre," Paris, 1900, p.
324 ; Schneider, op* cit., p. 119.

OG Leo Africanus, "Description de l'Afrique,;' Lyon, 1556, p. 225
(fids Schneider, op. cit., p. 119).

ar Thos. Winterbottom, " Nachrichten von der Sierra- Leone-Kiiste "
p. 221 (fide Schneider, op. cit.. p. 119).

os Segu, Jenne, Kaarla, etc.

1 5 2 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

Muniyo, and Kuka in Bornu. In the Haussa States,
Clapperton, in 1826, found the shells in general use as
money, and his companion, Richard Lander, mentions
cowry-currency in Kano, Womba, Catup, Kazigee and
Ragada in S.VV. Haussa district. Rohlfs, on his 1867
journey from Kuka through Gujeba and the southern
Sokoto beyond Yakoba to the Benue, and down this river
to its junction with the Niger, and then up to the Rabba,
finally passing through Ilorin and Yoruba to the coast at
Lagos, moved throughout in the region of the cowry-
currency. In the district of the Margin', cowries did not
circulate as money in Barth's time, yet he managed to
obtain two fowls with them, owing to the fact that the
shells were desired as ornament by the " young ladies."

In the 1 7th and i8th centuries cowries were used
very largely by the slave-traders of the Guinea coast from
Senegal southwards ; but in later times, English gold
and the American dollar, together with other articles of
exchange, displaced the shells to a very great extent.
Where not actually in use as money, they still continue
to be employed for ornamental and other purposes.

The territory of cowry-ornament in Western Africa is
of much wider extent than that of the cowry-currency.
In Morocco, for example, Lenz saw cowries as ornament
on the daughter of a chieftain. Such ornament is also
said to be used by the Tuarag of the southern Sahara,
and, according to Nachtigal, by the women in Tibesti.
The Joloff women string them on their hip-girdle.
Clapperton saw cowries frequently on the fringes of the
goat- and sheep-skins wound round the hips of the
women of " Kufu," and at Wazo he saw them on the
collars of greyhounds. According to Staudinger the
Fulbes had their numerous hair-plaits frequently decorated
with cowries. In Loko, Gurich, in 1885, found children

Use of Cowry -shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 153

hung with cowry -shells. The men-folk of the pagan
Kado negro in southern Haussaland, wear, according to
Rohlfs, a skin-apron hung with cowries, and the young
girls of the Kedje negro fasten on their leather-girdles a
bundle of small shells presented to them by their bride-
grooms. Earth mentions shell-ornament as in use by the
young women and girls of the Margin, and in Bagirmi, by
the pagan population in the south. The women especially
wear such ornament of cowries, and caps too are made
thereof, with which to decorate the heads of deceased
relations. Nachtigal also states that in this neighbour-
hood, at the funeral of a chief, " a small gourd-shell
full of beads and cowries was placed on the mouth in
order to serve to some extent as travelling expenses."
According to Rohlfs, the Mahommedan Aulad Rashid
(Arabs in N.W. Darfur) decorate the hair-plaits of their
camels and horses with the porcelain-shells, and the
women of Pebu adorn their arms with them. According
to Nachtigal, the wood- or tin-trombone, about one and
a half metres long, the hollowed antelope-horn, and the
short pipes of wood, brass or horn, which emitted such
terrible tones at festive processions of the Sheikhs in
Bornu, were all adorned with numerous cowries on the
surface. The Kawembu in Kanem and the Buduma of
the islands of Lake Chad also wear neck-chains of cowries.
The shells are a market-article in Kuka. They are taken
as an article of barter in journeys from Kuka to Bagirmi
and Wadai, where, especially by the native Arab and also
by the pagan negro, they are used as ornament. The
Mahommedan women in Bagirmi wear cowry neck-chains ;
the wives of the pagans in the Mofu district wear the
shells on the girdle and apron strings. In Abeshr
(Wadai), at the wedding of the king's daughter, thirty
large baskets, adorned with shells or beads, were carried

154 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

in front. Being wishful to journey through the pagan-land
of Runga, Nachtigal provided himself with cowries. In
Darfur he saw no more cowry-ornament." In Haussaland
Robinson informs us : " The most common form ot
gambling is a game called by the natives chacha. It
consists in throwing up five cowry-shells, the player
winning or losing according as the shells fall, the right
or the wrong way up." 10°

Regarding the use of cowries in the region of the
northern Guinea coast we have ample material to draw
upon in the accounts of numerous observers. In Sierra
Leone, at the time of Thomas Winterbottom, three or four
necklaces of cowries were worn at the mourning for a wife,
and the husband of the deceased woman was also required
to wear a necklet of shells. According to Major R. G.
Berry101 the shells are used to play a game called jagay,
or knuckle-bones. They also form part of the sacred
contents of the medicine bag, or Borfimor, used at the
initiation ceremonies in connection with the Human
Leopard Society of the Sierra Leone cannibals. A
Borfimor bag obtained by Major Berry was found to
contain four smaller bags, one of which held two tau-
shaped iron crosses, the stems of which were lapped with
cotton, and to the top of each was tied a cowry-shell, or
sign of life. "The tau cross, or crux nnsata? Berry remarks
• — and in quoting this passage I do not accept all of the
statements — " was the emblem of Osiris, and is called the
Sign of Life, the symbol of resuscitation and new birth,
expressive of the idea entertained by the Egyptians and

ou Schneider, op. cit., various pages (quoting Nachtigal, ]>arth, and
others).

100 C. H. Robinson, " Ilaussaland," London, 1896, p. 206.

101 R. G. Berry, " The Sierra Leone Cannibals, with Notes on their
History, Religion, and Customs." Proc. Roy. Irish Academy, vul. xxx.,
Sect. C., No. 2, May, 1912, pp.45, 53, and 67.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 155

other philosophers, that nothing created was annihilated,
and that to cease to be was only to assume another form,
dissolution being merely the passage to reproduction.
In its association with the Borfimor \and in tJiis connection
the presence of the cowry must not be overlooked}™1 we
seem to have the reflection of some such ideas, the fetish
being animated by the indwelling life of the victim and
the spirit attracted to it."

The Borfimor bag also contained a pebble made of
some earthy matter and lime, in one side of which was
incorporated a cowry-shell.

The remarkable resemblance in the use of the money-
cowry here to that of the Ojibwa and Menomini tribes
of North America, who also employ the same shell, has
been pointed out already in a previous paper.10'

In Liberia, according to Stewart Culin,104 pierced
cowry-shells (i.e., rubbed down on the back) are used in
fortune-telling. (See Fig. E., p. 156). Ratzel (op. cit., iii.,
p. 105) also gives a figure (f. 6) of a sword-sheath from
Liberia which is ornamented with cowries arranged in
stars.

Bowdich, who in 1817 was sent on a mission of peace
from Cape Coast Castle to Kumassi, mentions that in
Accra, as in Gaman, Kong and other neighbouring places,
cowries had currency.

North of Ashanti proper, in Koranza and Atabuobo,
Perregaux found them in full use and of higher value than
on the coast. According to this observer, in Koranza,
they were counted per thousand, and 100 cowries were

111 - The italicized sentence is my own.

103 J. W. Jackson, "The Money Cowry (Cypnca inoneta, L.) as a
Sacred Object among North American Indians,'' Munch. Memoirs (Lif. and
Phil. Soc.), vol. Ix. (1916), No. 4. See also p. 184 of this chapter.

104 Culin, "Chess and Playing Cards,'' op. cit., p. 815, footnote, and
fig. 134 on p. 817.

COWRIES USED FOR CURRENCY, ETC.

A. — Cyprica anuuhts (after Stearns).
B. — Cypraa moneta ( ,, ,, ).

C. — C. moneta var. atara Rochbr. (after Roberts in Tryon).
D. — C. Dion eta var. atava Rochbr., used by Ojibwa Indians (after Hoffman).
E. — Cowries (C. moneta v. atava and v. ctJinograpliiia} used in fortune-
telling, Liberia, Africa (after Culin).

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 157

worth 3d. In Okwaon, on the contrary, they were
reckoned thus : —

35 cowries = i string (Obang).
12x35 » therefore 12 strings = 3d.
50x35 „ „ 50 „ (1/50 cowries) = I Head

(Atramatiri).

In the plural, Atiri, was used for 2-9, and Atramatiri,
for 10 or more heads. A game with cowries (obviously
the same game as elsewhere in this region) was named
Atramaton, i.e. to throw cowries. These words are com-
binations with the word Atrama, which denotes cowries.
" They were so named," says Perregaux, " in the Tshi
language in Aquapim and Ashanti, while in Okwaon and
the northern lands the designation Serewa was used. A
single cowry was called Niwa, because of its likeness to an
eye10'' (Oniwa), and ten cowries were called Niwandu."10"

Among the Mamprusi of the Gambaga country, north
of Ashanti, cowries, together with kola nut, figure among
the objects distributed to guests and musicians at wedding
ceremonies."7

Apart from their use as currency, cowries play a very
important role as amulets and in fetish-worship among
the Ewe negroes of Togo district. They are worn on
the neck, arm, wrist and ankle, and regarded as amulets
against wounds and sickness, and for luck in hunting.
Mischlich records that the hunt-fetishes, Gbofu of Dad-
ease and Nakuku of Mjooti, both in Adeli, a district in the
hill-country of Togo, were ornamented with cowries. Spiess
mentions that they were worn in quantity by expectant
women, to ward off danger. It was the custom among the

105 The likeness of the aperture of the cowry to the closed eye may
explain why these shells have been applied as eyes for fetishes, etc., in the
Congo region, Borneo, New Zealand, etc.

1'"1 fide Schneider, op. <•//., pp. 144-5.

iur " Women of all Nations,'" p. 344.

158 Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

Ewe that if a woman died in childbirth she was not given
the usual burial treatment, and was not buried in her hut.
The same shells are also employed as eyes in the Begbowo
idol, as an ornament of the fetish-priests and priestesses
at their dance, as offerings to the protective deity and at
ordeals, at which it depends upon whether the priest, who
has taken two or three cowries in the mouth, retains them
there or casts them out.108 The similarity of these customs
to those current in other parts of the ^cvorld is remarkable.
As will be seen in the subsequent account ', t/ie association of
the cowry-shell with pregnancy is to be found in places so
far away as India and Japan ; while the spitting out of
• cowries appears to be identical i.vit/i the medicine ceremonial
of the Ojibwa and Menomini Indians of North America.

According to Klose, Togo warriors wear caps orna-
mented with cowries. As a protection from evil small
children have a pair of consecrated cowries interwoven in
the hair, while the women of the bush-people of the hinter-
land fasten cowries as a fetish on the side of the head.
Hunters, too, ornament therewith the butt-end of their
flint-lock guns, in order to ensure success, and on a much
honoured hunt-fetish in the neighbourhood of Soluga lay
buffalo- and antelope-horns adorned with cowries. At
the entrance to villages frequently stand clay-idols with
cowry-eyes and shell-ornament, and in front of them lay
abundant offerings of old spirit-flasks and calabashes
filled with cowries. At ordeals for the detection of a mur-
derer, the priests blow poison towards the sun out of a
cowry-decorated pipe, which, when the suspicion is correct,
falls down as blood, while at the trial of a thief two pieces of
wood, adorned with a cowry at each end and wrapped
round with a long cord, are made use of.109

108 Schneider, op. cit ., pp. 169-170 (quoting Mischlich and Spiess).
100 Schneider, op. cit., p. 170 (quoting Klose, "Togo.").

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 159

In Togo-land cowries are also paid by the relations of
a girl seeking admission among the Ewe-priestesses, and
when the betrothed Ewe-youth brings his wife home
he pays to her parents 4 marks in cowries.110 At death
ceremonies, relations, friends and acquaintances, place
quantities of cowries in the grave with the dead, in order
that the deceased may purchase food and palm-wine,
and reward the old ferry-man Akotia who carries him in
his canoe over the wide river Assisa to the region of the
dead. According to Monrad,111 the negroes fully believe
that everything expended in the funeral obsequies, such as
the goods, coral, cowry-money, etc., placed in the grave,
the tobacco used and the wine drunk on such occasions,
will be of use to the defunct when he rises up in the future
world.

Among the Bassari-people Klose found the previously-
mentioned game of chance (cowry-throwing), at which he
saw soldiers wager cowries to the value of from i to 3
marks at a cast. Cowry-casting for divination was also
employed by the priests in the fetish-village Dadease.

According to R. Fr. Miiller, at the circumcision of
boys the circumciser receives a cowry, conveys it to the
forehead of the person about to be circumcised, and finally
buries it with the prepuce in a small pit ; as a reward he
receives Si cowries. According to the same informer,
cowries were offered to the small-pox fetish.11'

That cowry-money has circulated in Togo for ages is
proved by an old saying, handed down from generation to
generation among the Ewe-negroes, according to which
cowries were found in a basket despatched from heaven

110 Herold, "Mitteil. aus den deutsch. Schutzgebeiten," Bd. V. (1892),
p. 151 (fide Schneider).

111 Monrad, " Gemalde der Kiiste von Guinea," p. n (fide Schneider).

112 Miiller, " Fetischistisches aus Atakpama (Deutsch-Togo)," Globus,
1902, No. 1 8, pp. 280-1 (fide Schneider).

160 Shells as evidence of tlie Migrations.

by Mawu (God), which the black eagerly appropriated
for purposes of trade.113

In Dahomey similar customs to those of the Ewe-
negroes prevail. The famous Amazons of the king, who
dwell in a house richly ornamented with skulls and cowry-
garlands, have a custom of glueing a cowry-shell for each
slain enemy to the stocks of their muskets, the shells being
glued by means of the blood of the slain man. Another
custom of the Dahomeyans takes the form of a " fight for
cowries " thrown by the king and his Amazons, this being
followed by the sacrifice of a human victim upon which
cowries and other objects have been dashed. At the con-
clusion of these ceremonies a number of cowries are
thrown upon the blood-stained earth.114

In Yoruba, as in Dahomey, cowries have been a
recognised form of currency for centuries, and in recent
years thousands of tons have been imported into Lagos.
According to Hoffmann, in 1850, about 40 white cowries
(C. uwneta] were equal to an English penny. In Yoemba,
in Lander's time, it was the custom on the death of a
chief for one of his wives to destroy all his possessions
and shell-money and then destroy herself. On his travels
through Yoruba, Lander also saw a sorcerer whose cowry-
hangings he estimated at 20,000 specimens. Not far off
the river Mussa, Forscher saw a hut with a veiled entrance
in which it was customary for passing negroes to place
cowries, because the god housed therein gave them water,
corn, and yams in abundance.11'

Among the Egbas, according to Brown,11(i it is the
custom when a great man dies for slaves to be slain to
act as his attendants in the land of spirits. Messengers

113 C. Spiess, Dent sch. Geogr. Blatter, 1899, p. 33 (fide Schneider).

114 Brown, "Races of Mankind," vol. iii., pp. 92 and IOO-2.

115 Schneider, op. cit., pp. 154-6, and 170.
110 Brown, op. cit., iii., pp. 114-15.

Use of Cowry -shells for Currency, Amulets, etc, 161

are also despatched to the dead in the same way. Slaves
or prisoners taken in war are richly dressed and laden
with cowries, and when they become intoxicated by rum
they are slain. In this manner it is believed that not
only messages, but the circulating medium with which
the victims are laden, can be conX-eyed to the departed
relatives of the people who have performed this pious
sacrifice. With these people sixteen appears to be a
sacred and mystical number. Thus, for instance, when
meditating war the war priest throws into the air sixteen
cowries. Much depends upon the way these fall. Those
which fall with the aperture upwards portend peace ; but
if a greater number fall with their apertures downwards,
then the divination is considered to be favourable to war.

Some interesting details of the use of the cowry as a
medium for the transmission of messages are given by
the Rev. C. A. Gollmer in his paper on " African Symbolic
Messages."1 In the Yoruba country, he informs us, the
natives send messages to each other by means of shells,
feathers, corn, stone, coal, etc., through which they convey
their ideas, feelings, and wishes, good or bad. Cowry -
shells in the symbolic language are used to convey, by their
number and the way in which they are strung, a variety of
ideas. Thus one cowry, strung on a short bit of grass
fibre, or cord, may indicate " defiance and failure " ; two
cowries, if strung face to face, "relationship and meeting,"
but if strung back to back, "separation and enmity";
two cowries and a feather, "speedy meeting"; three
cowries, with their faces all looking one way, strung with
an alligator pepper, " deceit " ; six cowries may indicate
" attachment and affection."

According to Bloxam,113 cowries are similarly em-

117 /ourn. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Bn. and 1. , vol. xiv., p. 169.

118 Ibid., vol. xvi. , p. 295.

c.

STRINGS OF COWRIES USED AS MESSAGES, ETC.

A. — West African symbolic message (after Bloxam).
B. — "Amulet for protection," from Kafr Ammar, Egypt (after Petrie).
C. — String of C. annulits from rubbish dating to xxii. dynasty. Medum
(in Manchester Museum).

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 163

ployed by the Jebu tribe of the west coast. The shells
are strung together in varying numbers, odd numbers, as
a rule, being of evil import, while even numbers express
good will. A single cowry may be sent as an unfavour-
able answer to a request or message. In some cases other
substances besides cowries are included in the aroko or
symbolic letters. Thus we find pieces of spice, a piece of
mat, and a feather, introduced for the purpose of convey-
ing some significant idea. (See Fig. A, p. 162).

This method of employing cowries for the purpose of
conveying certain ideas is of interest in connection with
discoveries made in Egypt of knotted cords with the same
cowries, papyrus charm pendants, uzat eyes, etc., attached.
Several of these cords are figured by Petrie119 in his book
on " Amulets," all from Kafr Ammar, xxiii-xxvth dynast}'.
He places the objects among amulets for protection and
says no explanation of their meaning is known in Egypt.
(See Figs. /> & C, p. 162.)

The history of the cowry in Africa may be concluded
with a few remarks on its use in Benin and about the
lower Niger. Dennett, speaking of the customs of the
Bini,1-0 informs us that " the people swear by licking and
touching stones, iron, cowries, bits of twisted rope, and the
crushed leaves of a plant, asking these things to kill them
if they are not telling the truth." According to the same
authority, every great house has an altar to Olukun — the
river spirit of Olukun or Great Benin river — in or near to
which is a pot of water, cowries (Igo) and a heap of other
objects. At Ewesi, not far from the Sobo plains, is a
temple to Olukun, in which are very old wooden figures
(like those into which nails are driven in the CongoJ
covered with cowries and other objects. In front of the

119 \V. M. Flinders Petrie, "Amulets," London, 1914, p. 29, No. 131,
pi. xvii. — xix.

120 K. E. Dennett, op. cit., p. 193.

164 Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

great figure of Olukun himself sits a priest, half hidden
by long strings of cowries hung from the roof. At Igo, a
town on the Gilly Gilly road, there is a mound on which
is an altar to Olukun with chalk cones and cowries on it,
all covered by a shed. The presence of an Odigi, or
sacred well, is generally made known along the roads
by a tree and a mound of earth and cowries.121 The
shells are also scattered at certain death ceremonies. la
Their association with marriage is seen by the fact that
among the upper class cowries, together with kola-nuts
and palm-wine, are given as presents on betrothal.
" Often on the roads one" passes a small tree planted by
the side of the road, near which are chalk marks and a
mound of earth, cowries, yams and plantains. This tree
has been planted in memory of the fact that some woman
or other has brought forth a child on that spot."1'

On the Bonny river, at Ibo on the Niger, and in other
places of the Niger-delta, cowries have, or had until quite
recently, general currency. In this neighbourhood also it
is the custom, at the interment of a chief, to bury all his
treasure with him in the grave. The brothers Lander
narrate that when they visited Idda, on the left bank of
the Niger, much consternation and indignation prevailed,
owing to the fact that the new chief had again exhumed
and misappropriated for his own use the treasure of
cowries which had been buried with his father.1"4

In India the money-cowry seems to have been
regarded with special favour for amuletic and currency
purposes from very early times. It has been met with
on several pre-historic sites accompanied with bangles
made from the sacred chank shell, Turbinella pyrum, and

121 Ibid., pp. 222-4, and 227.

122 Ibid., p. 207.

123 Ibid., pp. 198-9.

124 Schneider, op. cit., pp. 156-7.

Use of Cowry -shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 165

other shell ornaments. Its association with chank bangles
is specially interesting and seems to imply a similar
cultural source for the use of these white shells. Hornell
in his work on "The Sacred Chank of India"125 informs
us (p. 50) that fragments of Cyprcea moneta and of a
Nerita, also beads of entire Paludina shells, were found
near Hampasagra, on the Tungabhadra, 53 miles west of
Bellary, along with 18 fragments of chank bangles,
Mr. Bruce Foote placing the age of this find as late
neolithic or early iron age. Also (p. 51), "from made
ground in the north bank of a nullah, at Huvina, near
Hadagalli, 65 miles west of Bellary, came a single bangle
fragment with two money cowries (Cypraa moneta}"
and " from an old site north of Bellaguppa, came a
fragment of a working section of chank shell, an entire
Cyprcza moneta^ four fragments of scraper made of Unio
shell, and three fragments of chank bangles ; associated
with these were a neolithic celt, a fragment of a corn-
crusher, some pottery, and two metal fragments, one
being possibly part of a bronze ring." A further discovery
of the money-cowry is recorded from Damnagar, Amreli
Prant, Kathiawar, where two examples were found
associated with a great number of fragmentary chank
bangles, a basalt corncrusher, a bloodstone hammer, and
chert and agate cores (Hornell, p. 57). The example of
C. moneta figured by Hornell on plate V., (3456-13) is of
great interest from the fact that the back of the specimen
has been rubbed down in the characteristic Ancient
Egyptian and East African fashion.

In dealing with the money of India prior to Alex-
ander the Great, Del Mar (pp. a'/.) states that : " In Bengal
the principal money finds have been of cowries, the
metallic monies being comparatively few" (p. 66). And

lti Madras Fisheries Rulleiin, No. 7, 1914.

1 66 Shells as evidence of tlie Migrations.

again (p. 90) in speaking of the standard of money
in India from Alexander the Great to the Mahommedan
Conquest, he says : " In Northern India the copper pieces
were supplemented by gold and silver multipliers, in
Southern India by dividers of cowrie-shells." In the
Aianikyala tope in the Punjab, opened in 1830, "were
found mingled together cowrie shells, gold coins of the
Kadphises and Kanerkes, Roman consular coins shortly
before the Christian era, and copper coins of the Sassanian
line.''1-" Cowries formed the bulk of the currency between
the beginning of the Christian era and the Mahommedan
dynasty of A.D. I2O3.1'27 I" Bengal the system of a copper
standard with cowry dividers and gold and silver multi-
pliers remained unchanged after the Mahommedan Con-
quest. Ibn Batuta, the Arabian traveller of the 1 4th century,
gives an account of the collection of the cowry-shells in
the Maldive islands, from whence they were exported to
Bengal in exchange for rice. He states that a bustns
equalled a lak of cowries, and four l^ks, or four bnstus, were
estimated as worth one gold dinar, but the rate of exchange
was so variable that occasionally a dinar would purchase
as many as twelve laks of cowries.128

In Orissa, the next kingdom south of Bengal, accounts
were kept in cowries, and the following scale of values
prevailed during the early part of the Mahommedan rule :
4 cowries = i gunda ; 5 gundas= i boory ; 4 boories=i
pun ; 1 6 — 20 puns= i khawun ; 10 khawuns= i rupee. In
1740, a rupee exchanged for 2,400 cowries; in 1/56, for

R Marsden, "Numismata Orientalia," edited by Edward Thomas.
London, 1874, quoted by Del Mar, op, cit., p. 86 footnote.

1 -~ Marsden, op. cit., p. 37 ; Del Mar, op. ctt., p. 90 footnote.

128 Del Mar, op. cit., p. 99; ICdward Thomas, "The Chronicles of
ihe Pathan Ivings of Delhi," London, 1871, p. no footnote. In Lee's
translation of "Ibn Batuta" (London, 1829, pp. 179 & 181) the cowry
(Wada) is referred to as alms-gifts and as currency in the Maldives.

Use of Coivry -shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 167

2,560 cowries ; in 1833, 6,400 cowries ; and in 1845,6,500
cowries. Major Rcnnell, who was in Silhet in 1767-8,
speaking of the cowry -money, remarks : " I found no other
currency of any kind in the country ; and upon an occasion,
when an increase in the revenue of the province was
enforced, several boat loads (not less than 50 tons each)
were collected and sent down the Burram pooler to Dacca."
As late as 1801 the revenues of the British district of
Silhet " were collected in cowries, which was also the
general medium of all pecuniary transactions, and a con-
siderable expense was then incurred by Government in
effecting their conversion into bullion." (Thomas, op. tit.,
pp. 110 — ill footnotes).

Lovell Reeve, in his "Cpnchplogia Systematica,"11
mentions that " a gentleman residing some time since at
Cuttack is said to have paid for the erection of his
bungalow entirely in these cowries [C. moneta\ The
building cost him about 4,000 rupees sicca (^400 sterling) ;
and as sixty-four of these shells are equivalent in value
to one 'pice,' and sixty-four pice to a rupee sicca, he paid
for it with above sixteen millions of these shells."

In the Deccan, up to the thirteenth century, but few
coins of any kind seem to have been minted, the currency
appearing to consist almost entirely of cowries (Del Mar,
op. cit., p. 1 08).

In early times, cowries, it is thought, were brought to
India from the Philippines and Borneo, as well as from
the island of Bima near Macassar (Celebes); in later
times they were obtained from the Laccadive and
Maldive Islands. Of the latter, the Arab Masudi, in the
first half of the loth century, remarked that the queen
had no other kind of money than the cowries, which were

12<J Reeve, " Conchologia Systematica," London, 1842, vol. ii., p. 262
footnote.

1 68 Shells MS evidence of tJie Migrations.

obtained by means of rafts made of the branches and
leaves of the cocoa-nut lashed together and floated on
the surface of the sea. The work was carried out by
women. When sufficient animals had become attached
to the rafts by climbing aloft among the branches, these
were dragged ashore and the shells spread out on the
sands to enable the sun to dry up the contained animals.
The Arab author, Ebn Beithar, who died in 1248, also
mentions the Maldives as a locality from which cowries
were obtained.1™ These islands are also referred to by
Ibn Batiita, the Arabian traveller of the I4th century,
who speaks of the use of cowries (Wada) there as currency
and alms-gifts.1"1 At the beginning of the I7th century,
Francois Pyrard de Laval, observed the fishing of the
cowries by the women of the Maldives. According to
him the}' were collected twice a month, three days after
the new moon and three days after the full moon. The
shells were in such demand in India that sometimes 30 to
40 ships were seen loaded with them. In Cambay and
other Indian places, the prettiest were used as ornaments
along with silver and gold, and held as great rarities, as
if they were precious stones. They also passed current
there as money under the name Boly, and at burials they
were scattered on the way from the house of the defunct
to the cemetery as alms for the poor.l::i> Captain Owen, in
i832,133 gives an account of the collecting of cowries in the
Maldives somewhat similar to that of Masudi. He further
remarks on the similarity of the rafts, or balsas, to those
used on the coasts of Chili and Peru.

Bengal seems to have been the great market for the
cowries from the Maldives. From there they were widely

138 fide Schneider, op. ci/., p. iio.

151 See Translation by Lee, op. <•/'/., pp. 178 & 181.

182 Schneider, op. ci/., p. in.

lsr- fourn. Roy. Geog. Soc. /.otid., vol. 2, 1832, pp. 82-3.

Use of Cowry -shells for Ciurcncy, Amulets, etc. 169

distributed over India, not only over the plains of the
north and north-west, but also along the east coast and
even to the slopes of the Himalayas and to the Deccan
plateau.134

Besides their use as money in India the same shells
are employed to ornament the trappings of horses and
elephants, as previously remarked. They are also strung
like beads or sewed like buttons on the dresses of the
Brinjari women of Nagpur province.1'" According to Dr.
Curt Boeck, they are traded in Indian bazaars, especially
for bordering the cloth-masks of shamans.1'1" In many
Indian places, e.g., Gahsi, Punjab, one still finds C. amiulus
worn by the native women. The Todas of the Nilgiri
1 1 ills, S. India, wear a C. inoneta on a heavy silver collar
(Schneider, op. cit., p. 117). According to Thurston, this
same species is also worn by Toda women on their thread
and silver armlets and necklets. As in Africa, cowries
are associated with Toda death ceremonies. When a
person dies, various objects such as rice, honey, and other
food-stufTs, together with cowries, " with which to purchase
food in the celestial bazar," are burned with him. Like
the Todas, the Kotas of the Nilgiris occasionally make use
of cowries ; they are sometimes seen on the necklets of
the women ; and at funeral ceremonies when the skulls of
the deceased are brought to the funeral ground to be burnt,
a pole, twenty feet long, decorated with cowries, is also
burned in the case of a male. The Nilgiri Irula women, too,
sometimes have bead necklets with cowry-shells pendent.1*"

lul Schneider, ef>. cit., p. in.

1 :; •"' Stearns, " Etlmo-conchology — A Study of Primitive Money,"
Report U. S. Xat. Mns., 1887, p. 302.

1:"; Schneider, op. til., pp. 116-7.

' E. Thurston, Madi'a.< Government Museum, Hullttiti Xo. 4, 1896,
pp. 154, 174 i Todas), 192, 198 (Kotas) : vol. ii., No. r., 1897. pp. I4and 16,
pi. v. (Trains).

170 She/ Is as evidence of t/ie ^Migrations.

Thurston"8 also cites a curious custom among the Chettis
(traders) of Southern India of unmarried girls wearing a
necklace of the money-cowry and beads, it being " unusual
for unmarried girls to wear any badge of their condition."
This association of cowries with the unmarried is of great
interest in view of a somewhat similar custom in East
Africa, to which reference is made on another page.
Thurston further states that " when a Hasalara or Hasala
(forest tribe) of Mysore dies, somebody's evil spirit is
credited with the mishap, and an astrologer is consulted
to ascertain its identity. He throws cowry {Cyprcea
moueta) shells or rice for divination, and mentions the
name of some neighbour as the owner of the devil. There-
upon the spirit of the dead is redeemed by the heir or
relative by means of a pig, fowl, or other guerdon."
(Thurston, op. cit., pp. 164-5).

Turning to Ceylon we find that Hilclburgh, in his
"Notes on Sinhalese Magic," 13W states that cowries are
worn as amulets by infants. This same writer also gives
illustrations (pi. xi.) of masks worn by devil-dancers in
which sometimes the upper, or both upper and lower,
teeth are formed of cowry-shells. Culin, in his " Chess
and Playing-Cards," 14° describes a cowry game, Kavvadi
Kelia, in which cowries of different kinds are used as men,
each player also having three cowries as dice. This game
is clearly related to the Hindu game of Pachisi, also
played with cowries. The shells are thrown as dice and
the counts are according as the apertures fall uppermost
or not. " The game of Pachisi," says Culin, " may be

s E. Thurston, ''* Ethnographic Notes in Southern India," Madras,
1906, p. 68 ; In his article on " Some Marriage Customs in Southern India"
(Madras Gor/. J///<r. Bulletin^ vol. iv., No. 3, 1903, p. 155), Thurston gives
the species as Cypnca arabica.

13a Joum. A\ Anlhrop. fnst., vol. 38 (1908), p. 193.

140 Re-port U. S. A*/. Mns., for 1896 (1898), pp. 851-4-

(~se of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 17 1

regarded as an expansion and elaboration of the type of
game represented by the Korean N-yout, and sacred and
divinatory in its origin." Nyout is played with staves.
" The two faces of the staves, black and white, may be
regarded as signifying the dual principles of nature,
masculine and feminine. A feminine significance is widely
attributed to the aperture of the cowrie shell. Its convex
side would naturally be regarded as masculine ; hence its
substitution for the staves would seem to have been an
easy transition."

Games like Pachisi, in which cowries are used as dice,
are known in the Maldive Islands under the name Dliola,
and in Syria under the name of Edris a Jin\ also in
Burma as Pasit™

In parts of Further India the cowry is still in circula-
tion as money. In Siam and Laos it serves as a form
of currency, and in the former country 6,400 cowries are
said to equal about is. 6d.'4J At the end of the i/th century
La Loubere found it in use in all Siam ; it was obtained
from the Laccadives, from Borneo and the Philippines,
where it was taken in as ballast by the ships. About the
middle of the i8th century, according to Gervaise, the
Siamese small-change consisted of small shells, which the
Europeans called cowries and the Siamese Bia. Accord-
ing to Hertz they were no longer in use as small-change
at Bangkok in i88i.14:!

In Burma the women of the Tauncrthas wear a loose

o

skirt adorned with a wide belt of cowries or silver filigree
work.144

141 Culin, op. tit., pp. 856-7.

I4- Deniker, <>/. <vV., p. 324 : See also '* Century Dictionary," ii., p.
1521.

14:1 Schneider, op.cit., pp. 107-8.

144 "Women of all Nations,'5 p. 574.

1/2 Shells (is evidence of the Migrations.

In Thibet, according to Carl Ritter, cowries serve as
ornaments for women's girdles.14"

Among the Khasias, a stone-using tribe inhabiting the
Khasia Hills of Eastern Bengal, cowries are associated with
marriage. According to Brown,146 " the marriage ceremony
is of the most primitive type. All that is necessary is for
the couple to sit together on one seat and receive their
friends, to whom they give a marriage feast. A union so
easily contracted is just as easily dissolved. The woman
receives five cowries which she throws away ; they are
then free to be married again, the children remaining with
the mother."

Among the Nagas of Assam, head-hunting was
formerly a qualification for matrimony, and a warrior,
having slain an enemy, had the privilege of wearing a kilt
decorated with cowry-shells, collars ornamented with
similar shells, tufts of goat hair dyed red, and locks of
hair from the heads of the persons killed.147

A similar custom is prevalent among the head-hunt-
ing Patasiwa of Seran, where a warrior is not allowed to
take a wife until he can show the head of an enemy he has
slain. In proof of his prowess the warrior wears as many
little white shells (? cowries) round his neck and arms as
he has murdered men.148 An even more striking identity
in the association of cowries with head-hunting is to be
found in East Central Africa, where the Djibba tribe wear
not only the cowries but also the hair from the heads of
the slain enemies (see p. 142).

145 Schneider, op. «'/., p. 117.

146 Brown, of>. cit., iii., p. 302; quoting Lieut. Steel, K.A., Jou»i.
Ethtiol. Sac., vii., p. 305. By some philologists the Khasias are considered
to he Thibetans.

147 " Women of all Nations," p. 581.

14S G. A. Cooke, "System of Universal Geography,'' vol. i. (1801), p.
609.

Use of Cowry -she I Is for Currency, Amulets, etc. 173

Among the Dyaks of Borneo it is the custom to place
the small white money-cowries in the eye-sockets of the
skulls of enemies, which they keep.149 The baskets of the
Dyak head-hunter are also decorated with the same
cowries.150 Specimens in the Leiden Museum show C.
ammlus as decoration for sword-hangings from West
Borneo, and C. moneta as decoration for a betel-pouch
from South-east Borneo.151

In certain parts of Malaysia, cowries are attached to
the fishing-nets, not as " net-sinkers " as recorded by
several ethnologists,15' but in order to ensure success in
fishing or to ward off evil influences. In Nias, an island
off the west coast of Sumatra, Cyprcea vitellus is so used ;
in Engano, an island in the same neighbourhood, the
species is C. ventriculus ; in Timor, C. arabica ; while off
N.W. New Guinea the shells employed are C. moneta,
C. caput-serpentis, C. erosa, C. lyn.r, C. tigris and C. vitellus™

According to Von Martens, the Berlin Museum con-
tains specimens of clothing ornamented with cowries, from
Bali, near Java.154 In Timorlaut the natives" adorn cloth-
girdles with cowries, and in the same island, four species
of cowries, C. annulus, C. isabella, C. erosa, and C. Jielvola,
are employed as neck-ornaments.155

Van der Sande,156 describes and figures several neck-
ornaments from Dutch New Guinea, on which specimens

140 Stearns, op. cit., p. 302 ; Ratzel, of. cit., i., p. 135 (fig.).

150 Ratzel, op. cit., vol. i., p. 448 (fig.)

151 Schmeltz, " Schnecken und Muscheln in leben der volker Indo-
nesians und Oceanians," Leiden, 1894.

162 The slight weight of these shells would render them valueless as
sinkers.

163 Schmeltz, op. cit.

154 Schneider, op. cit., p. 118.

155 Ibid.) and Schmeltz, op. cil.

i5o yan der Sande, "Nova Guinea," iii , 1907, pp. 83, 117-8, pi. xiii.,
fig. 4.

1/4 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

of C. annulus are strung on strips of Pandanus leaf, the
whole hanging down from a neck string in front of the
chest Schmeltz (pp. n't., pp. 23 et seq.}, also cites the
use of C. argus and C. lynx as breast-ornaments, and
C. nioneta on hip-strings in N.E. New Guinea ; C. monet^
on arm band, C. annulus as leg- and shield-ornaments in
S.E. New Guinea ; and C. nwneta as ankle-ornament in
NAY. New Guinea.

In the Philippines, according to Schmeltz (pp. czf.\
C. annulus is used as a neck-ornament, as decoration for
the coat-of-mail of the Moro, and as the eyes of ancestor-
images.

According to Pickering the cowry was formerly in use
as money in the Hawaiian Islands. He says137: "An
estimable and intelligent Hawaiian lady gave me the
following particulars respecting former customs : . . .
Money was certainly known, for with a string of cowries
(Cypnea nioneta) it was possible to buy any article wanted.
Specimens of the same shell that were finer than usual,
having a high polish and deep yellow colour, were
extravagantly valued, and could only be worn by the
highest chiefs, who also exclusively possessed wooden
calabashes." In the Vancouver collection, British Museum,
are Leis of Cyprcea inoneta from these islands.158

In Oahu, Hawaii Islands, a large cowry, Cyprcea
niauritiana, is attached to fishing-nets in order to ensure
success. Specimens of this are in the R. D. Darbi-
shire collection, Manchester Museum. The stone (lava)
"net-sinkers" of Oahu are curiously enough all modelled
after this shell, being roughly carved with a high round
back and flat base, with a groove for the attachment of a
cord.

1 nr Pickering, " Races of Man " (Bohn's Ed.), 1863, quoted by Stearns,
op. cil., p. 303.

1 ">s '' Bernice 1'anahi Bishop Museum," Honolulu (1898-1902), Report
i.. p. 43-

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 175

Cyprcca moneta appears to have been current also in
other islands of the Pacific, as Brenchley states:159 "At
Eramango [Ne\v Hebrides] a shell called ' Nunpuri,' the
Cyprcea moneta^ passes as money, as also in New Caledonia."

In the Bismark Archipelago, says Schneider (&/>. cit.,
p. iicS), C. aunnlits was found as money in special cases.

In Gilbert Archipelago, the Ellice and Kingsmill
Islands, Cypnca uiouela and C. annulus are used as body-
ornament and for decorating implements and tools.100

F. W. Christian, in his article " On Micronesian
Weapons, Dress, Implements, etc,"1'11 figures a cowry-shell
used in the Carolines for stripping off the outer skin of
the bread-fruit. The figured shell looks like a Cyprcea
maiiritiana. He also figures an Oviilnin ovuui shell
(often alluded to as the white cowry) pierced for
ornamenting prows of canoes. The use of this shell
as a canoe-ornament is general throughout the Pacific.
Amongst other places it is recorded from the Pelew Islands,
Yap, Gilbert Archipelago, Samoa, Nine, Viti Islands,
Solomon Archipelago and Torres Straits Islands. In
some of these and in other islands it is also worn as an
ornament for the neck, breast, or leg, and placed on the
outsides of native houses. In Tonga it is used as a grave-
ornament, and in the Solomons as decoration of an idol.18'

In Tahiti, Cyprcea moneta and C. talpa are worn on
the neck, and C. tigris occurs on the base of an idol from
Tahiti, now in the British Museum.™" Sir C. H. Read, in
his description of specimens obtained on Vancouver's

1 •"•'•' Krenchley, "Cruise of the 'Curacoa,' '' 1873, P- 299? quoted byC.
Medley, Mem. Ausl. A/its.t iii., pt. 7, 1899, P- 452-

1110 Schneider, op. «'/., p. 118.

161 /. Anthrop. lust., 28 (1898-9;), pp. 288 et seq., pi. xxiv., f. 5.

102 Schmeltz, " Schnecken und Muscheln in leben der vulker Indo-
nesiens und Oceaniens,3' Leiden, 1894.

"" Ibid.

176 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

voyage, figures an instrument of palm-wood, used ior
splitting bread-fruit in this island, to which are attached
two tiger cowries with their inner whorls broken out, and
one end cut off.164

In the Loyalty Islands, the orange cowry (Cyprcca
aurora] is greatly valued. The Rev. Mr. Had field, in
the course of his missionary work, came across a fine
specimen in a native hut in Lifu, where it was held in
much veneration by the occupant, who considered it a
kind of fetish.165 Mr. liadfiel'd also gives us some further
interesting information regarding this species. He tells
us that his wife came upon a specimen which, according
.to the native report, had been found by an old woman
who was struck on the forehead by a demon, who asked
her why she took the shell. The woman, it is said, died
from the effects of the blow.1'56 This fine shell is used as a
badge of high rank in Tonga, or Friendly Islands, as well
as in Fiji. One of the most remarkable Fijian industries
is the working of whales' teeth to represent this cowry, as
well as the commoner C. talpa, which is more easily
imitated.167

The New Zealanders, it is stated, use Cypr&a asellus
and other shells to form the eyes of their idols.1"8

Codrington, in his " Melanesians" (Oxford, 1891, p. 26),
tells us that in Aurora, the nearest of the New Hebrides
to the Bank's Islands, the natives have a story that the
first woman came from a cowry-shell. Somewhat analogous
ideas are expressed in the traditions of the Samoans as
to the origin of man. By these people it is believed

164 /. Anthrop. Inst., 21 (1891-2), pp. 105-6, pi. x., f. 5,

165 Melvill & Standen, "Lifu Mollusca," Journ. of Conchology, viii.,
1895, P- II2-

1<;t; Ibid., p. 131.

167 A. H. Cooke, "Molluscs," Garni). Nat. Mist., iii., 1895, P- 98-

108 Ibid., p. 99.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 177

that man is formed from a species of mussel and that
gods are present in some of the shell -fish.109 A similar idea
concerning the possibility of human beings living in shells
is current among the Indians of the N.W. coast of
America. According to the Haida and Kaigani the first
people sprang from a cockle-shell.170

In the Far East, cowries, both large and small, were
used as a medium of currency long before the Christian
era. Frequent allusions are made to them in ancient
Chinese literature, but the authenticity of some of these
records and of the dates assigned to the period when
cowries were in use is open to some criticism. M.
Terrien de Lacouperie171 has presented us with some re-
markable views on the origin of Chinese civilization, based
upon the study of numerous Chinese works, and from his
statements it would appear that cowries were used as
money in China as early as 2,000 years B.C. But the
fact that many of the works which he studied are, to a
large extent, based upon tradition renders them unreliable
as evidence as to date. It seems certain, however, that
cowries were in circulation among the people of Eastern
China in the seventh century B.C., and the southern country
of Ts'u figures largely in connection with supplies of these
shells for currency. Contact with the west through sea-
traders of the Indian Ocean (Erythraean Sea), who are
claimed to have established a colony in the Gulf of Kiao-
chou (South Shantung) in 675-670 B.C., had made them
familiar with many western practices, and it is not im-
probable that the use of the cowry was one of them.
Some time about 600 B.C., the king of Ts'u issued two

169 Turner, "Samoa, etc." London, 1884, pp. 8, 12 and 17.

170 Niblack, "The, Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern
British Columbia," Kept. U.S. Nat. Afus., 1887-8 (1890), p. 378.

171 Terrien de Lacouperie, "Western Origin of the Early Chinese
Civilisation from 2,300 B.C. to 200 A.D." London, 1894.

178 S /i ells as evidence of the Migrations.

sizes of small coins, bean-shaped (in the fashion of the
y£ginaetan and Lydian coins of 750-700 B.C.) and inscribed
with their respective weights. These coins are known in
native numismatics as metallic cowries, Ho-pei tsien,
because their shape suggested that of the once useful
little shells they superseded. They have also received
other quaint appellatives, as ' Ghost-heads/ Kwei-tou ;
' Ghost-faces,' Kwei-lien ; and ' Ants'-noses money,' Y-pi
tsien?1- The introduction of this and other metallic
currencies caused the circulation of cowries to disappear
gradually in eastern China, and in B.C. 221, the king of
Ts'in, having assumed the title of She Hwang-ti, " the
first universal Emperor," issued an order forbidding hence-
forth the use of gems, pearls, tortoise-shells, cowries and
tin for currency purposes. Cowries, however, still con-
tinued to be regarded as objects of appreciation ; and in
B.C. 179 we find the king of Nan-yueh sending as presents
to the Chinese emperors 500 purple cowries17" along with
other gifts. At the end of the First Han dynasty an
attempt was made by Sin Wang Mang, the usurper (A.D.
9-22), to revive the circulation of cowries and tortoise-
shells, but little success rewarded his efforts. According
to Lacouperie,'74 the cowry currency consisted of five sorts,
regulated as follows : —
"(i) The great. shells ; 4 tsim or inches, 8 fen or loths

in length ; two of which formed a pang or pair ;

value 216 cowries.
(2) The bull shells ; 3 tsnn, 6 fen in length ; a pair of

which was worth 150 cowries.

172 Lacouperie, op. «'/., p. 118; also "Catalogue of Chinese Coins in
British Museum." London, 1892; and "The Metallic Cowries of Ancient
China, 600 B.C.,'' Jonrn. Roy. Asiatic Soc., xx., 1888, pp. 428-439.

173 The money cowry, C. nwneta^ before becoming fully adult, has
a deep purple back, and probably these were the objects sent.

174 Lacouperie, op. cit., 1892, p. 382.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, A niulets, etc. \ 79

(3) The small shells ; 2 tsun, 4 fen in length ; a pair

of which was worth 30 cowries.

(4) The lesser shells ; I tsun, 2 fen in length ; a pair

of which was worth 10 cowries.

(5) The smallest shells (cyprece monetce, or cowries),

being smaller than I tsim 2 fen, were not fastened
in pairs ; each was worth three cash. Those
which were smaller than six fen were not used
for currency."

The shells of groups I to 4 seem to have been un-
doubted cowries, as in group 5, only larger, as the same
characteristic Chinese hieroglyph denoting cowry (see
Fig- C* P- 1 80.) appears against each of the groups.

Unfortunately, except for dimensions, the particulars
are lacking as to the species of cowries forming these
four groups.

If we may take the measurements as more or less
approximating to English inches, it is possible to find a
series of cowries inhabiting Eastern seas which would
come within these dimensions. For example, Cyprcea
testudinaria (the u tortoise-cowry," named by Linnaeus
from its resemblance to the tortoise) might very well have
served for group i. Of the others, group 2 may have
been smaller examples of the same, or even Cyprcea tigris ;
group 3 may have been Cyprcea lynx\ while group 4 were
probably exceptionally large examples of Cyprcea moneta.
The average length of the latter species is about one inch.

Regarding the tortoise-shells re-issued by Wang Mang,
Lacouperie informs us that " there were four different
sorts, of various sizes and denominations, with different
values, but the details have not yet been handed down to
our time." It is not a little curious that the larger cowry-
shells were also of four different sorts, sizes, and values.

Use of Coivry -shells for Currency ', Amulets, etc. 181

This suggests the possibility of the so-called " tortoise-
shells " being really cowries.

From the following facts it is obvious that some con-
fusion has taken place with regard to the interpretation of
certain symbols in ancient Chinese works.

In Dr. Morrison's " Dictionary of the Chinese Lan-
guage "175 a symbol known as pet (see Fig. C, p. 180), is
translated (p. 622, No. 8471) as "the tortoise shell or
pearl-oyster shell" : on an earlier page (p. 510, No. 6811)
quite a distinct symbol, kwei, is translated " tortoise," and
the pel symbol is attached to denote ''tortoise shell "-
kwei pel (see Fig. D, p. 1 80).

In a Chinese work, the "Li Ki" or "Treatises on
Ceremonial Uses" (referred to on a later page) the pet
symbol (Fig. C, p. 180) is used to denote a particular object
placed in the mouth of the dead. The symbol in this
case has been correctly interpreted by the translator of
the work as meaning " cowry."

In the "Shoo King" (v., xxii., 19), the same symbols
(Fig. A, p. 1 80) as quoted by Lacouperie for the "great
shells" (i.e., cowries) of the Wang Mang currency, are
used in a paragraph describing a display of various precious
relics. But these characters have been translated by Dr.
Legge, in his " Chinese Classics,"176 as the "great tortoise-
shell."

The " Tribute of Yu " (" Shoo King," iii., i., 52) refers
to a particular object presented to Yu from the country
of the nine Keang, the symbol denoting this object being
the Kwei (No. 6811, p. 510) of Morrison's Dictionary
(Fig. B, p. 1 80). It is here translated by Legge as " the
great tortoise." 177 In his footnotes to this passage the trans-
lator states that " according to the 'Historical Records' the

17S Dr. R. Morrison, "Dictionary of the Chinese Language," 1819,
vol. i., pt. ii.

170 Dr. J. Legge, "Chinese Classics," 1865, vo1- *"•< Pl- "•» P- 554-
177 Tbid., vol. iii., pt. i., p. 116.

1 82 S lie Us as evidence of the Migrations.

great tortoise attained the size of two cubits and a half.
Such a creature would be esteemed very valuable, where
divination was much relied on " ; and further, according
to Gan-Kwo, that " the tortoise was not a regular article
of tribute, but was presented when required by express
command."

In the " Pwan-Kang" ("Shoo King," iv., vii., 14), the
characteristic symbol,/><?2 (/^. C\ p. 1 80) occurs in a passage
dealing with the hoarding propensities of government
officials, and is here translated by Legge as " cowries."178

From the above remarks it will be seen that the/£2
symbol has been incorrectly interpreted in certain cases.

Some interesting particulars concerning the use of
cowries in connection with the dead are given by Dr. J. J.
M. de Groot, in his work on " The Religious System in
China."179 The ancient Chinese, he tells us, used several
precious articles for preserving their dead. To this end
they availed themselves of cowry-shells, which were so
valuable in ancient times for currency. This fact, well
known to Sinologists, is especially manifest in the ancient
hieroglyph denoting the cowry (see Fig. C, p. 180), which
enters into the composition of most characters signifying
things of value and acts connected with trade and barter
(see Figs. E,'F, G, H, /, p. 180).

These shells were used in association with rice for
stuffing the mouth of the dead. They were made to
support the last molar tooth on the left and the right side,
and the mouth was finally filled up with rice.

According to the " Li KiJ' or " Treatises on Cere-
monial Usages" (an important source of our knowledge
of China during pre-Christian times), the mouth of the
Son of Heaven was stuffed with nine cowries, that of a

178 Ibid.) iii., pt. i., p. 240.

I7y Vol. i., bk. i., " Disposal of the Dead." Leyden, 1892, pp, 275-6.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency^ Amulets, etc. 183

feudal lord with seven, that of a great officer with five,
and that of an ordinary official with three.180

In some of the out-of-the-way corners of China cowries
remained in circulation for many centuries. In Marco
Polo's time (A. 13. 1271 — 91) cowries, called " porcellani "
by this traveller, were still in use in the country of Yunnan,
the shells being gathered at the group of islands now
known as Pulo Condore, off Cochin China.181

In the i6th century the cowry-currency seems to have
been officially suspended in Yunnan province. At the
present time cowries appear to have completely lost their
money value in Yunnan, since Lieutenant Garmer found
them nowhere in use north of Luang Prabang, Laos ; and
in western Yunnan they were worn only as ornament by
the Kakhyens. Carl Bock likewise saw cowries on the
head-masks of the leaders of the mule-caravans which
come from Yunnan into northern Further India.182

It is doubtful whether the cowry was used as currency
in Japan, though it is possible that in olden times shells
from the neighbouring Liu Kiu Islands were so used.
The Japanese name, Takara ( = prosperity, riches), kai or
gai ( — shell), may indicate their use as money. In
Kampfer's " Description of Japan " (London, 1727, Bk.i.,
ch. ii.) appears: "Takara gai, called Kauri in India,
brought from the Maldives and other islands and im-
ported into Bengal, Pegu and Siam, where it serves as
current money." K. Florenz reports that the Japanese
women at their confinement hold in the hand a " Koyasu-
gai (Easy-delivery-shell), a species of cowry," in order to
ensure certain and easy delivery, a practise analagous to

' v" (ule I)e (iroot, op. <•//., p. 275.

11 Colonel Henry Yule, "The Book of Ser Marco Polo," London,
1871, vol. ii., pp. 39 et se.q.

182 Schneider, op. t/'A, p. 107.

184 SJiells as evidence of the Migrations.

that of other peoples, e.g., the Indian.183 Attention has
already been called to the similarity of this custom to
that of the Togo people of West Africa.

The money-cowry {Cvprcea moneta} is, and has been
for centuries, a sacred object among the Ojibwa and
Menomini Indians of North America, and is employed in
initiation ceremonies of the Grand Medicine Society.184

The use of this particular cowry by these Indians is of
peculiar interest ; in the first place; owing to it being
alien to the American continent, and in the second place,
in view of its intimate association with so many remark-
able and fantastic beliefs and practices in different parts
of the Old World.

The tradition among the Indians is that the original
sacred shell — imgis^' of the Ojibwa ; konci'pamik, of the
Menomini — was introduced by a particular hero-god, who
acted as an intermediary between the Great Unknown
and the Indians, and founded their Medicine Society.
Among the Menomini the sacred shell appears always to
be the small white money-cowry, Cyprcea moneta™ but
among the Ojibwa, according to Hoffman, it consists of a
small white shell, of almost any species : but the one
believed to resemble the mythical mi'gis is similar to the
money-cowry. This fact would seem to imply that the
money-cowry is scarce among them, and those they
possess, doubtless handed down from generation to genera-
tion, are regarded with special veneration as being like

188 Schneider, op. cit., p. 108.

ls* W. J. Hoffman, Bureau of Ethnology (United States), ;th Annual
Report, 1885-6(1891), and 141)1 Annual Report, 1892-3 (1896), pt. i. ; also
J. W. Jackson, Manch. Memoirs (Lit. and Phi J. Soc.\ vol. Ix. (1916), No.
4. Abstract in Nature, January 27th, 1916.

186 In the Ojibwa language, ml'gis = symbolical of life.

188 The example figured by Hoffman (of. <•//.. 1891, pi. xi., fig. i) is
interesting, as it is perforated at one end as if for suspension ; it is of the
dwarf var. atara of C. moneta (see Fig. D, p. 1 56).

Use of Coivry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 185

that which came into their possession through the hero-
god Ml'nabo'zho.

The initiation ceremonies of these Indians are very
elaborate : the most important incidents are dancing and
the shooting forward by the medicine men of their skin
medicine-bags containing the sacred cowries. Mystic
powers are attributed to the shells, and it is firmly believed
that if they be swallowed by the medicine man, he can
transfer his power to the medicine-bag by breathing on
it, the mysterious influence being then conveyed to the
desired object or person merely by thrusting the bag for-
ward in the appropriate direction. At the initiation
ceremonies the magic influence is shot at the candidate's
breast, and the cowry — the symbol of life — is supposed to
enter his heart ; he becomes unconscious and falls forward
on his face. The chief medicine man then raises the
candidate's head slightly from the ground, and a sacred
cowry drops from the candidate's mouth..

The same cowries apparently play an important part
at baptismal ceremonies of the Ojibwa. There is much
dancing and the same shooting forward of the medicine
bags, and after a good deal of facial contortion each
medicine man spits out two shells on to a cloth spread in
the middle of the medicine tent.1"7

The essential part of these ceremonies is the supposed
death and survival of the candidate, the whole ceremonial
being strongly reminiscent of the St. George, or Mummers',
Plays of the Old World. lss It is remarkable how closely
the prevailing idea of the cowries being connected in some
strange manner with resurrection and resuscitation agrees

l>7 James Greenwood, "Curiosities of Savage Life," London, 1863,
p. 24.

"* For a full discussion of this subject see A. Beatty, " The St.
George, or Mummers' Plays; A Study in the Protology of the Drama,"
Trans. IF/.vc. Aitia. Set. Aits and Letters, xv., pt. ii., Oct., 1906.

1 86 Shells as evidence of tJic Migrations.

with the ancient Chinese belief as evidenced in the cere-
monial use of money-cowries in obsequies of the dead.
As mentioned previously, in pre-Christian and later times,
cowries were used in China, in association with rice, for
stuffing the mouth of the dead. Wild rice, it might be
added, also enters into the ritual of Ojibwa and Menomini
ceremonies. The fact that the so-called "wild rice" of
America is not identical with true rice cannot be raised
as an objection to the identity of these practices : for
the similarity which suggested the name "wild rice" to
European immigrants in America no doubt appealed with
equal force to the earlier Asiatic rice-using immigrants.

The apparent identity in the spitting out of cowries
by the Togo priests of West Africa and by the medicine
men of the Ojibwa and Menomini Indians has been noted
already. The association of the money-cowry with the
medicine bags used by the Sierra Leone cannibals at
initiation ceremonies is a further remarkable parallel.

Some interesting evidence of the early use of the
money-cowry in North America is contained in an ex-
haustive acco.unt on " Aboriginal Sites on Tennessee
River," by Mr. Clarence B. Moore.189 In his description
of the Roden Mounds, Marshall County, Alabama, this
author informs us that in Burial No. 44, well in the body
of mound A, were the remains of a skull, near which were
fragments of a large marine univalve, and five shells, some
much decayed, which had been pierced for stringing, like
beads. These are pronounced by Dr. H. A. Pilsbry, the
well-known American conchologist, to be examples of the
money-cowry, Crpnea incneta, of Eastern Seas. Such
shells have never been recorded before from an aboriginal
mound in the United States. The careful investigation
of the Roden mounds indicated that they had been built

lso fonrn. AcdiL Nat. Sti. r/iilad., 2nd Ser., xvi., pt. ii., 1915.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 187

before their makers had any intercourse with white per-
sons. The presence of the cowries, therefore, is of special
interest.

The shells were sent by the discoverer to Dr. \V. H.
Dall, another of America's leading conchologists, and the
following extraordinary statement was received in reply : —
" I should incline to the belief that the cowries were
imported in or about the time of Columbus' voyages.
Bound, as they supposed, for the Indies, where the
cowry was formerly (like our wampum) a staple
article of barter, the exploring vessels would undoubt-
edly have carried cowries as well as the other articles
of trade we know they carried. It would not have
taken them long to find out that cowries did not pass
as currency with American natives, and reporting this
on their return to Spain later traders would not have
carried them for barter. The necklace or bracelet
you obtained may have passed from hand to hand as
a curiosity (as I have known such things to do) until
it reached a people who knew nothing of the whites
'till much later. In fact your cowries may have come
off one of Columbus' own vessels ! "
But an even more remarkable story is that given in
"Harper's Monthly Magazine" for September (1916,
P- 599). by Mr. H. Newell Wardle, of the Philadelphia
Academy of Natural Science, as follows :—

"The great Genoese, starting in 1492 on his first
voyage to discover a new route to the kingdom of the
Great Khan, doubtless stocked his ships with a goodly
store of these ivory-white porcelain shells. He had
been in Guinea. He knew the requirements of the
Gold Coast trade .... Probably, though he fails to
mention it, cowries, strung as for the Guinea trade,
were part of his stock — an ill-venture, in competition

1 88 Shells (rs evidence of tJie Migrations.

with the shell ornaments of the Gulf Coast. ... So
mayhap the five little shells were bestowed, by Colum-
bus's own hands, upon a native of the isles, were
carried across to the mainland on some trip of trade
or of pleasure, and thence, from hand to hand, as
curios, journeyed northward with an ever-growing
wonder-tale of the great white chiefs from the East. . ."
" If not thus, then they had journeyed in dangling
from the trappings of one of those noble steeds that
shared the perils of the early explorers of the main-
land. . . ."

" Certain it is that they date from the close of the

fifteenth or the early days of the sixteenth century."

But Mr. Wardle omits the most wonderful episode of

his wonder-tale — I refer to the fact that after all these

imaginary wanderings and episodes on sea and land, the

cowries should eventually have come to rest in the heart

of the American continent, and, " of course purely by

accident," have become linked up with the identical beliefs

and fantastic practices with which they are associated in

Africa, India and Eastern Asia !

To such lengths does the American ethnologist go
rather than admit the patent fact that these shells
and the associated beliefs and practices were taken
from Eastern Asia to America long before the time of
Columbus !

According to Mr. Charles C. Willoughby, the Peabody
Museum, Cambridge, Mass., contains a clress of a Cree
woman, collected by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in
1804-5, on which are four dozen cowries (see American
Anthropologist, 1905, for picture of the dress).

The shells from the Roden mound, Moore informs us,
" differ from those on the Cree dress, which are of a larger
variety and much more distinctly humped than are our

Use of Cowry -shells Jor Currency, Amulets, etc. 189

shells, ours being of the variety atava, as described by
Rochebrune,190 who says they come from the Cape Verde
Islands" (see Fig. C, p. 156).

Notwithstanding Rochebrune's assertion, few students
of Cypr&a admit the possibility of the occurrence of living
C. moneta at the Cape Verde Islands, or indeed on any
portion of the West African coast. The cited occurrences
there of this and the allied form, C. annulus, may be due
to accident. As already stated, enormous numbers of
these shells have been carried to this coast during the
last few centuries, and it is a well-known fact that ships
conveying this commodity have occasionally come to
grief, the cargo of shells being lost. Such an occurrence
is recorded to have taken place in the year 1873, when
the " Glendowra," a four-masted barque, homeward bound
from Manilla, was wrecked off the coast of Cumberland.
The " Glendowra " had on board some 600 bags of cowries
(C. moneta and C. annulus] and missed the port of Liver-
pool through an error in her course, and, in the fog which
prevailed, ran ashore near Seascale. For years these
shells have been picked up, in good condition, on the
sandy shore between Seascale and the river Calder, and
collectors, unaware of their history, have regarded them
as indigenous to the British Isles.191

Unfortunately, the precise distribution of the numerous
varieties of C. moneta is not very well known. Hence it
is not possible to be sure of the exact provenance of the
Roden mound cowries, nor of those on the Cree dress.
It may be of interest, however, to note that Dr. J. Cosmo
Melvill, in his " Survey of the Genus Cypra^a " (pp. tit.,
p. 240), gives India as a locality for the var. atava.

190 Bull. Soc. Malac. d& France, i., 1884, p. 83, pi. i., fig. 4 (copied
in Fig. C of the present Chapter, p. 156).

191 See The Naturalist, London, Nov., 1890, p. 324.

190 Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations.

Mr. Willoughby believes that cowry shells were sold
to the Indians by the Hudson's Bay Company late in the
eighteenth or early in the nineteenth century.

Prof. Henry Montgomery1"2 records and figures a cowry
found near the so-called Onatonabee Serpent Mound,
Peterboro County, Ontario. Mr. C. B. Moore, (op. cit.,
p. 295) says : " The shell described by Professor Mont-
gomery is a regular Cyprcea nioneta, or money cowry of
Africa and the East, and not a California shell. This
shell, which, by the way, is not pierced for stringing, is
probably one from the Hudson's Bay Company stock.
We do not think the sale of cowries to Indians in the
North at a comparatively late date by the Hudson's Bay
Company indicates a relatively recent origin for the
Roden mounds, for, at a period when the supplies of the
Hudson's Bay Company could have reached the makers
of the Roden mounds, articles of European make could
have got among them from all directions and the mounds
presumably would have been well supplied with glass
beads, brass, iron, and other things obtained from Euro-
pean sources which, as we see, was very far from being
the case."

In an old account by G. A. Cooke,193 dealing with the
habits and customs of the Indians of the most northern
parts of America, some interesting particulars are given
concerning the ceremonies observed by certain tribes
previous to waging war. One of the most hideous of
these, Cooke informs us, was the setting of the war-kettle
on the fire, as an emblem that they were going out to
devour their enemies. A porcelane, or large shell, was
then dispatched to their allies, inviting them to come
along and drink the blood of their enemies. Unfortu-

i«2 Trans. Canad. 7ns/., Toronto, 1910, ix. (i.) No. 20, p. 7, pi. iv.,
fig. 6 (/ft/.1 Moore).

103 Cooke, op. cit'., ii., p. 21.

Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc

IQI

nately, neither the name of the tribes concerned, nor the
name of the shell employed, are given ; but the fact of
the latter being called a "porcelane" is not without
interest, as " porcelaine " is the common French term for
cowry. There is no certain evidence, however, to support
the conclusion that a cowry was the shell employed as a
war signal. Earlier in this Chapter we have seen that when
the Egbas of West Africa meditated war, cowries were
thrown into the air by the war-priest ; and in the Yoruba
country, where cowries are used for symbolic messages,
a solitary cowry indicates defiance.

Oz'tifa (Calpttnnis) verrucosa L.

'A. — Philippines (after Reeve).

B. — Ancient American graves (after Holmes).

Mr. W. H. Holmes, in his " Art in Shell of the Ancient
Americans,"1"4 illustrates in Plate xxxii. a number of
perforated marine shells exhumed from ancient graves of
North America. Two of these (Figs, n and 12) are of
special interest as coming within the scope of the present
discussion. Unfortunately the precise data regarding
the site of their discovery are not given ; all we are told is

104 Second Annual Repoit, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1883,
PP. * 79- 305-

192 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

that they are from the Pacific coast. Fig. 1 1 shows a
cowry with a small hole near each extremity, illustrating,
it is stated (p. 220), "an ancient as well as a modern
method of perforation." The name of the species is not
given, but it does not appear to me to be an American
shell. Though the illustration is not sufficiently clear to
define the species, in general appearance and contour the
shell has a look of Cyprcea caput-serpentis — an Indo-Pacific
species.

Holmes' Fig. 1 2 (see Fig. B, p. 191 ) shows a shell rubbed
down on the back, and is referred, like the last, to Cyprcea ;
but this is incorrect, the shell being undoubtedly Ovula
(Calpitrnus] verrucosa, L.195 (Fig. A, p. 191). This fact is of
great importance and has hitherto passed unnoticed.
Like the money-cowry, C. moneta, which it somewhat
resembles, this species is alien to the American continent ;
it is known to occur only in East Africa, the Indian
Ocean, Philippines, New Caledonia and neighbouring
Islands.

According to Schmeltz (op. cit.y 1894, p. 34), this shell
is worn as a neck-ornament in the Viti, or Fiji, Islands ;
as a hip-ornament in Santa Cruz (Queen Charlotte
Islands); and as a leg-ornament in East New. Guinea.
The Rev. A. H. Cooke1116 also informs us that in Papua,
"village elders are distinguished by a single Ovuhun
verrucosum, worn in the centre of the forehead."

The fact that the shell figured by Holmes is ground
down on the back, as is done in the case of money -
cowries in India, Africa, and other places, is of no little
interest. Such an arbitrary method of perforation does

195 The well-defined tubercles at the extremities confirm this identifi-
cation. Compare, Tryon's "Manual of Conchology," vii., 1885, pi. 5, fig.
56-58 (Ovulidce) ; Reeve, " Conchologia Iconica : Monograph of the Genus
Ovulum," 1865, pi. i., fig. 2.

196 « Molluscs," Camb. Nat. Hist., vol. iii., London, 1895, p. 99.

Use of Cowry- shells for Currency, Annilets, etc. 193

not seem to have been usual in shells other than cowries,
either in America or anywhere else.

It is remarkable that after so many years, and with
the yearly increase of knowledge, the two shells figured
by Holmes should have remained undetermined. They
are reproduced along with the other shells of Holmes'
plate by H. Beuchat, on page 145 of his "Manuel
d'Archeologie Americaine" (Paris, 1912), but no further
details are added.

Regarding the use of cowries in Southern California,
Frederick W. Putnam197 gives some interesting particulars,
though these are somewhat lacking in detail. He writes
(p. 252): "The fact that the Indians of California, in
common with savages generally, often decorated their
implements and utensils with the same materials which
they employed for personal ornament, is proved by articles
collected from the graves ; as, for instance, the decoration
of the rims of the large stone mortars, on which, held in
place by asphaltum, are pieces of the pearly shell of
Haliotis, or sometimes, the perfect shells of two or three
beautiful species of Cyprcea ; C. spadicea particularly being
employed on the mainland. Another method of ornament-
ing the rims of these mortars consisted in cutting away the
dorsal portion of the shells of Cypraa and fastening them
to the mortar, by their cut surface, with asphaltum, so as
to exhibit the lips of the shell, with their serrated edges."
Such a cut shell is represented by Putnam in Plate xiii.,
Fig. 52, of his work, but no specific name is given. Its
contour is totally unlike that of C. spadicea, or any other
American cowry. My colleague, Mr. R. Standen, and I
have carefully compared the illustration with various
cowries, and the only shell the features of which appear

lar jn « Report U.S. Geog. Surv. west of looth meridian, vol. vii. —
Archceology," Washington, 1879.

194 Shells as evidence of the Migrations.

to conform to the illustration is C. vitellus, an Indo-
Pacific species. This suggestion, however, can only be a
tentative one, as comparison with the original specimen
may reveal other distinguishing characters not visible in
the illustration.

A further interesting feature is seen in Putnam's Plate
(Plate xiii., Fig. 47-51) in the use that was made by the
Californians of cowry-shells for personal adornment. The
serrated lips of these shells were cut out and perforated
at one end for suspension as pendants. Earlier in this
Chapter reference is made to the discovery of the com-
plete outer lip of a large cowry (C. tigris) in prehistoric
pit-dwellings in the South of England (antea, p. 133).

The discovery of cowries in pre-Columbian graves in
Ecuador is recorded by M. H. Saville. In his "Antiqui-
ties of Manabi, Ecuador,"198 this writer reports the finding
of a shell of the cowry-type, which had a hole drilled in
the top, and a piece of pottery was fitted to the under
part by means of some kind of gum. This shell, which is
figured by Saville (Plate Ixvii., Fig. 5) as Cypraa cervinetta
(a Panamic species), was found with a human skeleton in
mound 3 at Cerro Jaboncillo.

198 Contributions to South American Archaeology, N.Y., 1910, vol. ii.,
pp. 48 and 177.

APPENDIX. I.

Since the rest of this work has been printed further
information bearing upon the matters discussed in it has
come to my knowledge. Some of these data are of
sufficient importance, especially from their bearing upon
the problems of geographical distribution, to justify the
writing of an appendix.

The discovery of the art of purple-dyeing has been
attributed to the Tyrian tutelary deity Melkart, who is
identified with Baal by many writers. According to Julius
Pollux ("Onomasticon," i., iv.) and Nonnus ("Dionys.," XL.,
306) Hercules (Melkart) was walking on the seashore
accompanied by his dog and a Tyrian nymph, of whom
he was enamoured. The dog having found a Murex with
its head protruding from its shell, devoured it, and thus
its mouth became stained with the purple. The nymph,
on seeing the beautiful colour, bargained with Hercules
to provide her with a robe of like splendour. He obtained
the shell-fish, extracted the purple, and dyed for her the
first robe of Tyrian purple, thus acquiring her favour. In
the exergue of some of the coins of Tyre is represented
this discovery of the purple-shell by the hound of Her-
cules.

In Coleman's "Mythology of the Hindus," (London,
1832), a remarkable picture is given (Plate 5, fig. 2) of the
fish-incarnation of Vishnu with an animal resembling a
dog issuing out of a conch-shell at his feet. The asso-
ciation of a dog with Vishnu and his most sacred chank
is hardly likely to have been invented by the worshippers
of Vishnu, for to the Hindu the dog is unholy and an
object of dread. This idea could hardly have originated
in India itself, but was brought there along with a host of
other bizarre conceptions.

In the legend of the discovery of the purple dye we
have seen the mystic association (or companionship) of
the god with the conch-sh'ell and the dog. In the Indian
picture we see a representation of the identical conception.

In the foot-notes to Rawlinson's " History of
Herodotus" (London, 1858, vol. ii., pp. 414-5, footnote 2),
there is a reference to a shell in the hand of a statue of a

1 96 Appendix.

Phoenician goddess [Astoreth ?], found by Mr. Moore in
Syria. In Calmet's " Dictionary of the Holy Bible "
(1841, vol. 4, p. 37 ; vol. 5, pi. liv., fig. 5), there is a figure
of a Phoenician medal on which a female deity — half-
human, half-fish — holds a concha marina, or sea-shell, in
her left hand. It is impossible to identify the shells in
these cases, but whether Buccinum or Murex^ purple-shell
or shell-trumpet, matters little. The chief point of interest
is the association of a conch-shell with the deity — in one
case a fish deity — recalling the like association of the
chank with the Hindu god, Vishnu.

It is not a little curious to find that one of the purple-
yielding shells (Purpnra lapillus] is commonly known as
the "dog-whelk." According to Lovell (" Edible British
Mollusca," 1884), and other authorities, Buccinum unda-
tum, L. is the common whelk, or buckie, the Ran and
Buccinonde of the French. "In Anglo-Saxon whelk is
Weolc, but weolc is said to mean tliat which gives the
purple dye (therefore it would apply better to the* dog-
whelk, Buccinum lapillus, or Purpura lapillus, which yields
a purple dye) ; thus, embroidered with purple is weolc-
basn-hecuen ; scarlet dye is iveolc-read" (Lovell, op. cit.y
p. 200).

The following survival of an ancient method adopted
in shell-fishing is worthy of note. At the present time
whelks are taken in great numbers in wicker baskets
baited with offal. Pliny (" Nat. Hist." bk. ix.)and Pollux
(" Onomasticon," bk. i., ch. iv.) describe the taking of
" purple fish " by a similar method, viz., in a kind of osier
kipe, called Nassis, baited with cockles.

In dealing with the use of Triton shells for horns or
trumpets in the Mediterranean region no mention was
made of the practice of this custom nor of the presence of
these shells in Ancient Egypt. I now find that the Triton
was regarded by the Early Egyptians as an object worthy
of a place among the articles deposited with their dead.
J. de Morgan, in his " Recherches sur les origines de
1'Egypte,"1 records the discovery of two 7W/0;/-shells
from the Red Sea (probably T. tritonis} in the Royal
Tomb at Nagada, probably of proto-dynastic date.2 It

?; Pt. II., Ethnographic prehistorique et tombeau royal de Negadah,
Paris, 1897, p. 1 60.

2 Fide Dr. G. Elliot Smith.

Appendix. 1 97

is not stated whether they were perforated for use as
trumpets.

In G. A. Wainwright's account of " The Excavations
at Balabish,"3 a number of objects are figured from " Pan-
Graves," amongst them the Triton-shell, apparently not
perforated, together with S trombus and other Red Sea
forms.

These facts seem to suggest that in Egypt these shells
must have served some definite cultural purpose, such as
has been described (p. 33) in the ceremonies observed in
Crete and elsewhere in the Mediterranean.

Amongst a number of pamphlets entitled l< Colonies
Franchises," published by Ludovic Baschet, Paris, without
date, there is an article by Max Leclerc on Madagascar,
in which is given a coloured illustration of a Triton-shell
trumpet, but whether it is " end-blown" or "side-blown" is
not certain. The picture suggests the former. According
to Ratzel,4 the musical instruments of the Malagasies "are
eminently Malayan in character. The Antsiva or shell-
trumpet of the Malays and Polynesians is regarded as
very important. A great sea-shell, with a hoarse note,
which only kings may legally use, serves to call the
soldiers to arms."

Rumphius, writing in the early part of the i8th century,
refers to the employment of Trt ton-shells, with a hole on
the side of the spire, as trumpets by the Alfurs of Ceram.
He also noted the use of great numbers of the white " egg-
shell " — Ovulum ovum — as ornaments for the neck and
hair, by the same people. 5

In addition to the reference already given on p. 5 I of
the use of shell-trumpets in the Babar Islands in calling
down the sun-god to accept offerings, Mr. W. J. Perry has
very kindly sent me a communication from Dr. A. C.
Kruijt, of Posso, Central Celebes, stating that Triton-shell
trumpets are much used in almost every village of Central
and North Celebes. They were formerly kept in the
temple (lobo) together with strings of other shells. They

* Journ. of Egyptian Archeology, Vol. II., Oct. 1915, pp. 202 et seq.,
pi. XXV., f. 2. " Pan-Graves " are Nubian interments in Egypt and
may belong to the period from 2000 B.C. onwards.

* Ratzel, " Hist, of Mankind," vol. i., 1896, p. 457.

6 G. E. Rumphius. " D'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer," Amsterdam, 1741,
pp.94 and 115.

198 Appendix.

are taken on warlike expeditions and blown when an
enemy has been killed. Sometimes bamboo trumpets
are used. Some Toradjas say that bamboo is employed
only when shells are not available. Shell-trumpets are
also blown to warn the village of the approach of an
enemy, and at eclipses of the sun and moon, when the
temple drum is sounded ; also when the bush is set on fire
to clear it for agriculture. The employment of shell-
trumpets at eclipses recalls their identical use in Bengal

(p. 36).

Van der Sande,6 describes and figures two types of
shell-trumpets in use in Dutch New Guinea. One of
these is made from the Trtton-shett, and is provided with
a circular blow hole on the second whorl of the spire,
outside the third varix ; the other is made from the wing-
shell, S trombus maximus, and has the blow-hole at the
apex of the spire, as observed by Moseley at Humboldt
Bay fsee p. 40). Both forms, according to Van der Sande,
were offered to him inside a temple, " but had not to be
concealed from the women. In fact they are also used
outside, as also reported from elsewhere, as instruments
of call, producing a very loud sound when blown. In
British New Guinea [Fly River] they are used also to
drive away evil spirits."7

In his " Note on the Use of the Wooden Trumpet of
Papua,"8 W. N. Beaver gives some interesting references
to shell-trumpets. u Naturally," so he says, " the coast
tribes use the ordinary conch shell as a trumpet, and the
people of the hinterlands obtain their shell instruments
from them in the way of trade ; but the further one
penetrates inland, the more difficult it becomes to obtain
shells."

He reports the use of the conch, together with the
wooden trumpet, " among the Sangara on the northern
side of Mount Lamington, among the Huhurundi living
inland from Holnicote Bay, and among the Howajega,
Asingi, and Tohani, all bordering about the main
Kumusi River." In the trans-Kumusi region, towards

6 Van der Sande, "Nova Guinea," III., Leyden, 1907, pp. 307—8,
314, pi. xxix , f. 22 and 24.

7 Ibid., see also Chapter II., p. 41, and Chalmers, in /ourn. Anthrop.
Inst., vol. 33.

8 Man, Article 16, Feb., 1916.

Appendix. 199

the Yodcla Valley, among the Autembo and other tribes,
the wooden trumpet is apparently used more frequently
than the conch. " The ordinary conch shell trumpet
varies in size up to about 20 inches long and about 9 inches
across in the largest part [apparently Triton tritonis\. A
hole from i inch to J inch in diameter is made about
3 inches from the apex. Over water the reverberating
note can be heard a very considerable distance."

The details of the notation of trumpet blowing, given
by this writer, are of considerable interest. It is based
upon the long-short blast system ; and the significance
varies according to the district. Examples are given of
shell-trumpet calls from the Binandele tribes of the
Mamba and Gira rivers, the significance of which, accord-
ing to notation, are : " killing in a fight when in camp or
dancing"; "calling to a fight"; "conveying the news
of a death " ; " men are bringing a pig." The second
example, which consists of a " long blast, short, short, etc.,
and repeat," is generally used nowadays " to call in the
people from their gardens, say, for example, on the arrival
of European or other strangers, or, again, half-a-dozen
long blasts may convey the news that a Government
party or Europeans are approaching."

The use of shell-trumpets, in Peru, Samoa, and else-
where, to herald the approach of some important per-
sonage, has already been described (antea pp. 45 and 46).

It is important to note that the photograph of the
native blowing a wooden trumpet, reproduced by Beaver,
shows the man wearing a string of large white " cowries "
(Ovuluin ovum}.

From Malinowski's recently published account of the
natives of Mailu Island, off the coast of New Guinea,9 it
is apparent that certain shells, including shell-trumpets,
play an important role in the " magico-religious " practices
of these people. More especially is this the case at the
Maduna™ or great annual feast of the Mailu, which is
connected, amongst other things, with agricultural activi-
ties. Elaborate preparations are made, and a number of

9 Trans, and Proc. Roy. Soc. S. Australia, xxxix. , Dec., 19* 5> PP- 494

seq.

10 Maduna means distribution, the allusion being to the distribution of
foods vvhicli forms an essential feature of the proceedings (Malinowski,
p. 665).

2OO Appendix.

minor feasts held, before the main feast, while certain
forms of Gora? or taboo, are exclusively practised in
connection with the same. The most important ceremo-
nial role of one of the smaller feasts is the erection of a
small gallows, ornamented with a large white shell called
by the natives Moto (Ovuluin ovum : the " so-called "
white cowry). This is an indication that the G6vi dance
(the most important and most sacred dance) will be per-
formed at the Maduna. It is also a token that as many
pigs are already pledged for the feast as there are shells
on the G6ra, each shell representing one pig promised by
a man of the Maduna gubina (master of the feast). The
association of this shell with pigs is remarkable and per-
haps significant, when it is recalled that cowries are widely
known as pig-shells. By the French they are called
Porcellana, or " pou-de-mer," and by the Romans porci
and porculi™

Following this ceremony, according to Malinowski
" comes the Oilobo feast, apparently the most important
preliminary event, which certainly contains the greatest
amount of magico-religious element, and probably even
more than the main feast. It marks the beginning of
the fasting or Udini period, and is held some two months
before the main feast * * * This feast also is called
Boroa evaure, Boroa meaning mango. In the morning of
the feast-day a dance called Laige is performed in the
village, both men and women taking part in it. The
women hold * * EldkiVA in their hands, the men beat
the drums and blow the conch-shells while dancing."14
The later ceremonies take place in the afternoon, when
the men go out into the bush, bringing back with them
mango saplings and creepers, which form part of the pig
magic. " They come in state, forming a procession, which
is headed by a man blowing the conch (Bogigi) made of
a 7W/0»-shell. He is followed on both sides by two men,
also with conch shells." The remainder of the procession

11 G6ra, in its broadest and most abstract meaning, means taboo, rule,
prohibition ; it is distinctly the conception covering what we call law in our
society. (Malinowski, p. 587).

12 See also Chapter IV., p. 126, re this subject.
18 Eldki: folded mats of pandanus leaves.

14 Malinowski, op. «'/., p. 670.

Appendix. 20 1

is composed of the master, or masters, of the feast, and
assistants bearing the mango saplings.

Before the holding of the main feast, word is sent
round to the various villages, and the natives leave in
their canoes for the ceremony, blowing conch-shell
trumpets and shouting loudly to announce the event.

The ceremonial use of shell-trumpets by the Mailu
in connection with agricultural and other activities forms
a striking parallel to similar practices in Malabar and
Siam, described in Chapter II., (p. 37). In Samoa, the
Society, and other Pacific Islands, we also find shell-
trumpets associated with processions and times of prayer
and fasting. From Aztec pictorial manuscripts we learn
that identical customs were carried out by the ancient
Mexicans, as already noted in previous pages. The
blowing of the conch-shell among the Guaymis of the
Chiriquian region of Panama to announce the arrival of
guests to a feast is another noteworthy example of
identical usage (p. 47).

According to F. W. Christian,15 the " side-blown "
shell-trumpet is also used in the island of Ponape, Caro-
line Islands. In describing the musical instruments of
Ponapeans he tells us that " the Chaui (Fijian Davui) or
shell-trumpet — the Pu of the South Polynesians,16 is used
as a signal of war or assembly, like the Atabal of the
ancient Mexicans. Close by the pointed end of the shell
a circular hole is bored. Some of these are of very large
size, and are often picked up amongst the foundations of
old houses." Pearl-shell fish-hooks and Ovulum ovum
are also used in this island ; the latter as ornament for
the prows of canoes.

Some details of the use of another cowry-like shell —
Ovulum verrucosum — have already been given. I have
since found that this shell is employed in New Caledonia
as an ornament for witchcraft packets, great value being
attached to the shell, especially for its believed powers of
rendering persons invisible.17

I have been unable to trace the actual use of the
7>//0«-shell as a trumpet in New Caledonia, but it is

15 Journ, Anthrop. Inst., Vol. 28, p. 298.

16 For a good figure of this see Ratzel, op. fit., i., p. 255.

17 Le Pere Lambert, " Moeurs et Superstitions des Neo-Caledoniens,"
Noumea, 1900, p. 3 (Fig.).

2O2 Appendix.

evident that it is regarded with some significance, as
in the Berlin Museum there are three poles strung with
Triton- shells from this island.18 In Ratzel's " History of
Mankind " (vol. i., p. 260) there is a figure of one of these
Triton -decorated poles surmounting the roof of a New
Caledonian hut. It is interesting also to note that a
bunch of Ovulum ovum shells is attached to the base of
the pole. That the Ovulum shell is regarded in Oceania
as having an intimate connection with cosmogony is
gathered from its association with the god Tangaroa, who
is revered even in the remoter islands, such as Taaroa and
Kanaloa. " A Raiatean legend gives a grand picture of
his all-pervading power ; how at first, concealed in an egg-
shaped shell, he hovered around in the dark space of air,
until weary of the monotonous movement, he stretched
forth his hand and rose upright, and all became light
around him. He looked down to the sand on the sea-
shore, and said : 'Come up hither.' The sand replied : ' I
cannot fly to thee in the sky.' Then he said to the rocks :
' Come up hither to me.' They answered : ' We are rooted
in the ground, and cannot leap on high to thee.' So the
god came down to them, flung off his shell, and added it
to the mass of the earth, which became greater thereby.
From the sherds of the shell were made the islands. Then
he formed men out of his back, and turned himself into a
boat. As he rowed in the storm, space was filled with
his blood, which gave its colour to the sea, and, spreading
from the sea to the air, made the morning and evening
glows. At last his skeleton, as it lay on the ground with
the backbone uppermost, became an abode for all gods,
and at the same time the model for the temple ; and
Tangaroa became the sky." *

According to Pickering,'0 war-conchs, made of Triton-
shells, were met with at Aratika, in the western Paumotu
Islands. In this group, also, and especially in Manihiki,
ornamentation by means of pearl-shell is very character-
istic, canoes and their paddles, clubs, and bowls, being
inlaid with discs of this shell."1 The associated use of
pearl-shell and 7W/0«-shell trumpets is also present in the

18 Bernice Panhi Bishop Museum, vol. i., No. i. , Honolulu, 1898, p. 18.

10 Ratzel, op. cit., i., pp. 308-9.

-° " Racesof Man" (Bolm's Ed.), 1850, p. 56.

'- J Bern. Pan hi Bisk. Mus., op. cit. , various pages.

Appendix. 203

Marquesas Islands, as well as elsewhere in the Pacific.
In the Marquesas, skulls have the eyes replaced by pieces
of pearl-shell, and the lower jaw fastened to the upper by
cords,22 as in the islands of the Torres Straits.

One of the most important additions to our knowledge
of the employment of shell-trumpets in ancient Peru is
contained in Chas. XV. Mead's article on " The Musical
Instruments of the Incas."2 The discover)'' in Peru of
pre-Columbian trumpets made from the shells of Strombus
galeatus has already been mentioned (p. 48). The pottery
and other objects found in the ancient burial places of the
Incas, and now transferred to the American Museum of
Natural History in New York, has enabled Mr. Mead to
provide more positive evidence of the use of shell-trumpets
by the ancient Peruvians, for, certain of the artifacts,
especially the pottery vessels, are decorated with pictures
of human beings in the act of playing upon such instru-
ments. Among other objects of interest described and
figured by this author is a gold ornament found in a pre-
historic grave at lea, Peru, on which are depicted two
human beings blowing trumpets. One of these is a shell
probably intended to represent a Strombus : it is blown
through a hole at the apex of the spire. A remarkably
fine example of a shell-trumpet, "end-blown," made from
Strombus galeatus, is also shown on Plate III. (fig. i) of
Mead's paper ; it has a copper mouth-piece, and is orna-
mented with an engraved figure of a warrior. Another
figure on the same plate (fig. 2) depicts a trumpet made
of terra cotta : it is one of several in the collection in
which the shell form has been reproduced in clay.
Classed with the flutes by Mr. Mead are three other
trumpets. One is made from a shell (Fasciolaria princeps} :
it has two vents, one through the top of the spire, the other
on its side, the two others being imitations of shells in
terra cotta. The double perforation in the Fasciolaria-
trumpet is of very great interest as being the only example
of its kind that I have met with in my researches.

The shell-trumpets of the Mediterranean region, of
India, Borneo, China, Japan, and Central America, are
all, so far as I have ascertained, "end-blown," i.e., they

25 Dall, in Bureau of Ethnology (United States), iii., 1884, p. 95.

!s American Museum Journal ( Supplement j, Vol. III., No. 4, July,
1903, Guide Leaflet No. n.

204 Appendix.

have the tip of the spire of the shell knocked off. In New
Guinea and in Melanesia "end-blown" trumpets are in
use, as well as others of the "side-blown" type, i.e., with
the blow-hole on the side of one of the upper whorls of
the shell. The apex in the latter is left perfect. It would
appear, therefore, that the Peruvian example is a combi-
nation of the two types.

The reproduction of the shell form in clay is another
interesting point linking Peru with the Mediterranean
region. As mentioned on an earlier page (p. 34), clay
models of the 7>#0«-shell were found in 1903 in the
excavations at Knossos, in Crete. Mosso also records
the discovery in Minoan sites of reproductions of shells
in alabaster and other materials.-4

According to Mead, the trumpet is frequently men-
tioned in the earlier accounts of Peru, such as those of
Garcilasso and Alonso de Ovalle, in connection with
battles between opposing armies. Prescott also states
that at the siege of Cuzco (1536) "the Spaniards were
roused by the hideous clamour of conch, trumpet, and
atabal, mingled with fierce war-cries of the barbarians." "

This association of the conch-shell trumpet with war
was also met with in the lands bordering the north-eastern
part of the Gulf of Mexico, for on the appearance of
De Soto's soldiers in 1539 tne Indians of Florida and the
Chickasaw country were roused to action by the blowing
of horns and conch-shells, and the beating of drums.-6

The custom of placing pearls and other objects in the
mouth of the dead in China, described in an earlier chapter,
is also found in Korea. In his article on " Mourning and
Burial Rites of Korea," E. B. Landis27 gives a list of
articles used at encoffining the corpse, which includes,
amongst others ; rice ; pieces of Haliotis shell ; three
pearls, etc. A little rice is first placed in the mouth of
the dead, then a pearl, in the left, the centre, and the
right side of the mouth.

Dr. Elliot Smith informs me that in the course of

2* Mosso, "The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization," 1910, p. 364.

28 W. H. Prescott, " History of the Conquest of Peru," vol. II., 1855,
P- 32.

a6 Grace King, " De Soto and His Men in the Land of Florida,''
London, 1914, pp. 39 and 187.

*** Journ. Anthrop. lust,, vol. 25, pp. 346-7.

Appendix. 205

excavations in the Soudan Mr. F. LI. Griffith found large
numbers of cowries and metallic representations of cowries
in graves at Napata and elsewhere, which are referred to
Early Christian and pre-Christian times. Many of these
cowries were rubbed down in the way so often mentioned
in this book.

An interesting addition to the series of localities where
the cowry is put to a cultural use is furnished by Ellis
H. Minns, in his " Greeks and Scythians." • In describing
the contents of ancient Scythian graves in the Kiev dis-
trict, he says : " Those who could not afford the precious
metals used beads, either home-made of clay or stone, or
of glass imported from the Mediterranean area ; even
cowrie shells found their way so far north."

In his account of "Some Japanese Charms connected
with the Making of Clothing,"2" W. L Hildburgh states
that " a plentiful supply of clothing and the securing of
good-fortune in general is thought to be assured by the
placing of a cowry-shell (koyasugai} with the laid-avvay
clothing, because, according to [his] informant, of the
koyasugat's well-known significance as a symbol of good
fortune, or by the placing of obscene pictures with the
clothing." In further explanation of this remarkable
custom he adds : — " I have been told by an informant
from another part of Japan that people wishing to be
lucky in lotteries sometimes carry pictures of the vulva
(of which the cowry-shell noted above is a well-recognised
image)." (See also antea, p. 183).

These additional scraps of information serve to
emphasise the general conclusions that emerge quite
definitely from the mass of data impartially set forth in
this book. All the cultural uses of shells are intimately .
related the one to the other. In whatever part of the
world shells are employed for such purposes, the same
peculiar and wholly arbitrary significance is attached to
them. They confer the blessings of fertility in women
and crops. They cure sterility and facilitate parturition.
They bring good-luck in games and more serious enter-
prises. They avert the evil eye. They secure the preser-
vation of the dead and bring resurrection and life. They

38 Cambridge, 1913, p. 64, quoting Count A. A. Bokrii skoj, " Smela,"
ii., v., I.

29 A fan, Feb., 1917, 17.

206 Appendix.

are the parents of mankind and the dwelling-places of
gods. They can summon the gods to be present at
ceremonies of initiation, at deaths and burials, in battle
and in harvesting. Whether as cowry-amulets or blasts
upon the shell-trumpet they are used to convey messages
of war and death, or to summon the people from agricul-
tural occupations, or to greet important strangers. As
medicine they can restore the " soul-substance," the loss
of which is responsible for illness or death.

These remarkable attributes of shells are found wide-
spread in the Old World and the New, and afford the
most positive and unequivocal evidence of the migration
of early culture along certain well-defined routes around
the earth.

APPENDIX II.

The following interesting information has reached
us as we are going to press.

What appears to be an additional instance of the cultural
use of the money-cowry in the New World is to be seen in
a picture reproduced by S. H. C. Hawtrey, in " The Lengua
Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco."1 In Figure 2 (p. 282)
this writer shows the head of a Lengua Indian with a re-
markable headdress on which money-cowries are distinctly
visible arranged in rows. No reference to these is made in
the text, 'Such a type of cowry-ornamented headdress
recalls those tof the East African people described in
Chapter IV. (p. 142) of this book.

That shells were cult-objects in early times in Egypt
seems certain, from their occurrence in numbers in ancient
Egyptian sites. But too little attention has been paid to
these discoveries and their true significance has not been
appreciated, investigators having too little knowledge of
shells and their habitats to realise the importance of their
presence in ancient tombs. Nearly all the shells recorded
as found in Egyptian tombs are species which inhabit the
Red 'Sea and the adjacent African coast. ;Hence it is
probable that all these shell-cults had their origin in this
region, that is they were developed by a maritime people,
or people having ready access to the sea. Suggestive
evidence of this is furnished by the fact that Red Sea
Pteroceras-shells \Pteroceras bryonia, Gmelin) figure as
designs on statues of the phallic god Min found on the site
of the temple of Koptos. Some authorities think these
statues belong to the Predynastic period, but others regard
them as the earliest work of the dynastic people. Their
presence at Koptos has been claimed as providing " a
powerful argument to those who wish to bring the dynastic
Egyptians 'from the land of Punt, situated on the east coast
of Africa, on the borders of the Red Sea."2 But diffusion
of culture can explain the facts without dragging into the
discussion these purely hypothetical and utterly misleading

1 Journ. Anthrop. Inst., 31, 1901, pp. 280 et seq.

Petrie, "Koptos," 1896, pp. 7 — 9, pi. iii., iv. ; also Capart, '* Primi-
tive Art in Egypt," 1905, pp. 222 — 224, figs. 166 — 167.

(207)

208 Appendix II.

interpretations of the racial problem. There are many
indications of intercourse with the East African littoral in
Proto- as well as in Predynastic times.

Whatever view is taken as to the source and date of
the Min statues, it does not in any way affect the question
of the introduction of sea-shells into Egypt : as these were
already in use there in Predynastic times. Whether origi-
nally brought by migration of people or introduced by
trade relations, does not concern us in this discussion, but
the evidence at our disposal points very definitely to the
Red Sea coast as the chief source of supply. Thus there
must have been some kind of intercourse between Egypt
and this , region at a very early period. But strange as it
may seem, there is as yet no earlier evidence than the Sixth
dynasty for the use and appreciation of the marine pearl-
shell, though hosts of other Red Sea shells had been in
use for centuries before that date.

Of extraordinary interest is the presence in Egypt of
mummified shell-fish. Lortet and Gaillard3 report the dis-
covery of two shells (Area auriculala, Lam. and Cardiuin
edule, L.) prepared " pour la momification par le natron
reaineux conservateur " in a tomb of the necropolis of
Gebelen, in Upper Egypt. These must have been carried
across the desert from the shores of the Red Sea in a
mummified state, since it would not have been possible for
them ito have remained in a fresh condition in so warm a
climate during the journey to Gebelen.

The full significance of the role played by shells in the
religion of the Egyptians awaits elucidation, but it is certain
that some symbolic virtues were assigned to them. They
may have been associated with some deity, just as we
have seen the cowry to be associated with Venus. Doubt-
less a closer study of Egyptian texts and monuments would
result in elucidating this interesting subject.

s Arch. Mus. cTHist. Nat. de Lyon, vol. 10, 1909, pp. 116 — 117.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF OTHER

RECENT MEMOIRS DEALING WITH THE

THEORY OF THE MIGRATIONS

OF EARLY CULTURE.

A. — The following Papers on the Theory of the Migrations of

Early Culture have been published by

"Professor G. Elliot Smith :—

1. ''The Ancient Egyptians and their Influence upon
the Civilisation of Europe," Harper Brothers,
London and New York, 1911. 2/6 net.

2. " Megalithic Monuments and their Builders," Re-
port, British Association, 1912, p. 607.

3. "The Evolution of the Rock-cut Tomb and the
Dolmen," in "Essays and Studies f presented to
William Ridgeway," Cambridge University Press,
1913, p.- 493.

4. " The Migrations of Early Culture," Manchester
University Press, 1915. 5/- net.

5. "The Influence of Ancient Egyptian Civilisation
in the East and in America," Manchester Univer-
sity Press, 1916. I/- net.

6. " The Origin of the Pre-Columbian Civilisation of
America," Science, August nth, 1916, p. 190.

7. "Pre-Columbian Representations of the Elephant
in America," Nature, November 25th and Decem-
ber 1 6th, 1915, and January 27th, 1916.

8. " Ships as Evidence of the Migrations of Early
Culture," Manchester University Press, 1917. I/- net

TO BE PUBLISHED SHORTLY.

9. " Incense and Libations " and

10. "Dragons and Rain-Gods," in the Bulletin of the
John Rylands Library, and also separately, Man-
chester University Press.

11. "Primitive Man," in the Proceedings of the British
Academy ', Oxford University Press, 1917.

(209)

2 1 o Bibliography

B. — Other Publications on the same subject issued by
the Manchester University Press : —

(1) Memoirs by W. J. PERRY.—

" The Megalithic Culture of Indonesia," with illustra-
tions. (In the press.)

" The Relationship between the Geographical Dis-
tribution of Megalithic Monuments and Ancient
Mines," Memoirs and Proceedings of the Manches-
ter Literary and Philosophical Society, November
24th, 1915. 1/6 net.

" The Geographical Distribution of Terraced Culti-
vation and Irrigation," ibid., April I5th, 1916.

1/6 net.

(2) Memoirs by J. WILFRID JACKSON.—

" The Money Cowry as a Sacred Object among
North American Indians," ibid., May I7th, 1916.

i/- net.

" The Aztec Moon-cult and its relation to the
Chank-cult of India, "ibid.. May i;th, 1916. i/-net.

*" The Geographical Distribution of the Shell-Purple
Industry," ibid., May 22nd, 1916. 1/6 net.

*" Shell-Trumpets and their Distribution in the Old
and New World," ibid., May 22nd, 1916. 1/6 net.

*"The Geographical Distribution of the use of
Pearls and Pearl-shell," ibid., September 6th, 1916.

1/6 net.

*" The Use of Cowry-shells for the Purposes of
Currency, Amulets, and Charms," ibid., December,
1916. 2/6 net.

*Reissued with new plates and additional informa-
tion in " Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early
Culture." Price 7/6 net.

INDEX.

Amulets. See Cowries.
Aztec gods. Shells associated with,
51-55 ; compared with Hindu gods,

53-55' 57-58> with Maya g°ds> 56'57 ;
adorned with pearls, 118. See also
Tecciztecatl, Tlaloc, and Tonatiuh.
Aztec Moon-cult, 35, 52-55.

Babylonian Fish-god, 61, 78.
Blood-letting. Shell-trumpets used at,

51 ; cowries used at, 160.
Buccinum-shells, as trumpets, 4, 32 ;

purple dye obtained from, 4-7, 196.

See also

, as trumpets, 38-40, 43,
51 ; found in Mentone cave, 136 ;
found in pre-Columbian burial in
Ecuador, 121.

Ckac, Maya Rain God. Conch-shell
associated with, 57 ; compared with
Tlaloc, the Mexican Rain God, 57 ;
appears as the Maya Moon God, 57 ;
claimed as the American form of the
Vedic god, Indra, 57-58 ; tortoise
associated with, 60 ; compared with
the stag-headed dragon in Japan, 63.

Chank-cult of India, 35-38, 53-55, 58-
59, 195-196.

Chank shells. As trumpets, 35-38, 53-
55 ; used by Hindus and Buddhists,
35' 3&J 53-54 5 reversed, prized by
Hindus, 35, by Chinese, 38 ; Vishnu
associated with, 35, 53, 58-59, 61,
195-196 ; calcined for making lime,
84, 91-92 ; references in Classics to,
88; fisheries of, 88-89; pearls found
in, 90 ; in prehistoric sites in India,
164-165 ; bangles made from, 165.

Charms. See under Cowries.

Circumcision. Shell-trumpets used at,
37; cowries used at, 159.

Classical Literature. Purple mentioned
in, 3-4, 7, 10-15, 81, 195; shell-
trumpets mentioned in, 30, 32; pearls
mentioned in, 73, 77, 81, 83, 87-88,
93-94, 96, 104.

Clay idol found in cTasszVshell in Ten-
nessee, 64.

Clay models of shell-trumpets, 34, 47,
203-204.

Cowry, The. Derivation of name, 126;
Greek name of, 126; Roman name
of, 126, 200; French name of, 126,
200; Sanskrit name of, 126; Portu-
guese name of, 126; Arab name of,
126; Siamese name of, 126; Chinese
signs for, 180-182; Japanese name
of, 183, 205.

Cowry-shell, The. Known as *' Concha
Venerea," 138; as the parent of
mankind, 176; as the source of life,
182-183, 185-186. See also Cowries.

Cowries. Death, associated with, 74,
100, 128-138, 145, 147, 153-154, 159-
161, 164, 169-170, 182-183, 186-194,
205; placed in mouth of the dead,
loo, 182-183, 186; as currency, 123,
126, 130, 140, 142, 147-164, 165-169,

171, 174-175, 177-181, 183; asamu-
lets, 123, 127-129, 139-143' 146-164,
169-172, 183, 194, 205-206 : in
games, 126, 154, 157, 159, 170-171;
as hunting and fishing charms, 127,
157-158. 173-174; as charms against
the evil eye, 127, 140, 152-153, 158,

169, 183; as fertility charms, 127,
133, 139, 142, 145, 152-153' 157-158.

170, 183-184; marriage, associated
with, 127, 142, i45-!46, 153' *57'
164, 172; imitated in stone, 128,
174, in ivory, 176, in metal, 178,
205; in caves, 134-138; for divina-
tion and soothsaying, 140-141, 145,
:55> I58-I59' 161, 170 ; head-
hunting, associated with, 142, 160,

172, 174; as eyes for idols, 149-150,
15%> J73' J76: initiation ceremonies,
associated with, 154-155, 184-186; at
circumcision, 159; as symbolic mes-
sages, 161-163, 190-191; as war-
signals, 161, 190-191.

Cowries. Use of : Africa, 141-164;
America, N., 184-193; Arabia, 139;
Bosnia, 131; British Isles, 133, 140.

(an)

Ill

Index — continued.

194; California, 193-194: Caucasus,
130-131: Ceylon, 170; China, 177-
183; Crete, 134; Ecuador, 194;
Egypt, 74, 128-130, 138, 140-141,
163, 205; France, 133-135; Ger-
many, 130-134; Greece, 140; Hawaii
Islands, 174; Hungary, 140; India,
140, 164-170; India, Further, 171-
172; Indonesia, 172-174; Italy, 133,
136-137; Japan, 183-184, 205; Mal-
dives, 167-168, 171; Melanesia, 175;
Micronesia, 175; Montenegro, 140;
Norway, 140 ; Nubia, 128-129 ;
Paraguay, 207 ; Persia, 140; Philip-
pines, 174 ; Polynesia, 175-176 ;
Russia, 131, 139, 205; Sicily, 139;
Spain, 134; Sweden, 130; Thibet,
172.

" Crab-stones," or " crab's eyes," 92,
96.

Crete. Early discovery of shell-purple
in, 9: early use of shell-trumpets
in, 33, 61; cultural use of cowry in,

134-

Currency. See Cowries; also Pearls,
Haliotis, and Tortoise-shells.

Death. Shell-trumpets associated with,
37-38, 41, 44; pearls ditto, 89-90,
100-101, 106, 112-117, 2°4? cowries
ditto, 74, 100, 128-138, 145, 147,
153-154, 159-161, 164, 169-170, 182,
183, 186-194, 205.

Divination. Cowries used for, 140-141,
J45» 155> J58-i59> I^i? 170; tortoise
used for, 182.

Dog, The. Unholy to the Hindu, 195;
associated with Hercules (Melkart),
195, with Vishnu, 195; whelk named
after, 196.

Dragon, The. Stag-headed, in Japan,
63; emerging from conch-shells, 67-
68; pearls associated with, 102-104.

Early purple-fishery, 9, 195.
Ear-piercing. Shell-trumpets used at,

51-

Evil eye, charms against. See Cowries.

"' Eye-stones," or opthalme, 92.

Fasciolaria-sheUs, as trumpets, 50-51,
203; associated with Mexican gods,
51-52; associated with Maya gods.
56-

IVrii'.ifv charms. See Cowries.

Fish Incarnations. See Vishnu.
Fishing charms. See Cowries.
Fog-horns. Fusus-shells used for, 39.
Fresh-water pearls. See Pearls.
Fusus-shells, as trumpets, 39-40; found
in Japanese shell-mounds, 19.

Gaetulian Purple, 15.

God in the Shell, 44, 52-58, 64-68,

177.

Gods represented by shell-trumpets, 44.
Games. See under Cowries.

Haliotis -shell. Known as Ear of Venus,
xii; as currency, xii; cultural use
of, 49, 106-107, no, 122, 193;
pearls found in, 106-107, 122; found
in ancient burials, 122; placed in
mouth of dead, 204.

Harvest-rites. Shell-trumpets used at,
36-37, 49-5J» 54> 198-201.

Head-hunting. Shell-trumpets associa-
ted with, 41; cowries associated with,
142, 160, 172, 174.

Hercules (Melkart). Discovery of pur-
ple dye attributed to, 195; dog
associated with, 195.

Hindu chank-cult, 35-38, 53-55, 58-
59, 195-196.

Hindu gods. Shells associated with,
35^ 53-55> 58-59, 61, I95-I96; com-
pared with Aztec gods, 53-55, 57-58.
with Maya gods, 58-61, with Japan-
ese gods, 62-63; tortoise associated
with, 59-60; adorned with pearls, 87.
See also Vishnu, Siva, Indra, and
Varuna.

Human beings emerging from shells,
55, 62, 65-67.

Hunting charms. See Cowries.

Indian Fish-god. See Matsya.

Indra, Vedic god, 58, 68; compared
with Tlaloc, the Mexican Rain God,
58, with Chac, the Maya Rain God,
57-58.

Initiation. Shell-trumpets associated
with, 41-42; pearls and pearl-shell
associated with, 87; cowries associa-
ted with, 154-155, 184-186.

Japanese god. Shell associated with,
62; fish incarnation of, 62; com-
pared with the Hindu god, Vishnu,
62-63; tortoise associated with, 63.

Index — continued.

213

Kava drinking and shell-trumpets, 41-

42.
Krishna. An incarnation of Vishnu,

59; discovery of pearls attributed

to, 87 ; Panchajanya, conch-shell

trumpet of, 59.
Kurma, tortoise incarnation of Vishnu,

59-60, 63.

Laconian Purple, 12.

Marine pearls. See Pearls.

Marriage. Shell-trumpets associated
with, 32, 37; pearls ditto, 70, 81-
82; cowries ditto, 127, 142, 145-146,
153, 157, 164, 172.

Matsya, fish incarnation of Vishnn,
58-59, 195.

Maya gods. Shells associated with,
55-58, 68; compared with Hindu
gods, 58-61, with Aztec gods, 56-57;
tortoise associated with, 60. See
also Chac.

Maya manuscripts. Shells figured in,
55-58.

Maya Rain and Moon God. See Chac.

Medicine. See Pearls; also Pearl-shell.

Megalithic Culture. Purple associated
with, 14, 25, 27-28, 72 ; shell-
trumpets associated with, 14, 25, 27,
29, 72; pearls associated with, 14,
25, 27, 29. 72, 77, 90; cowries
associated with, 74.

Mexican manuscripts. Purple dye used
in, 25-26; shell -trumpets figured in.

50-55-

Mexican Moon God. See Tecciztecatl.

Mexican Rain God. See Tlaloc.

Minoans. Invention of purple dye
attributed to, 9; shell-trumpets used
by, 33-35, 61; shell-trumpets figured
on seals of, 33-34; shell-trumpets
found in Sanctuaries of, 35.

Money-cowry, The. Regarded as sacred
by North American Indians, 184-186;
found in N. American mounds, 186-
190. See also Cowries.

Moon, The. Conch-shell as emblem of,
52: influence of, on women, 52, 69,
on crops, 53, on shell-fish, 68-69;
Hindu god of, 53-55; Aztec god of,
56: Maya god of. 57; Japanese god
of, 62.

Mother-of-Pearl. See Pearl-shells.

Mummified shell-fish found in Egypt,
208.

Murex-shells. Purple dye obtained
from, 5-6, 9, 12-14; used as symbol
on Tyrian coins, 5, 195; used as
trumpets, 35, 49-50.

Mycenaean use of. Triton as ornament,
34-

Mytilus-she\\s. Pearls found in, 89,
108.

Ovulum ovum (Indo-Pacific shell). In
Gothlandic tomb, 134; as canoe
ornament in the Pacific Islands, 175,
201 ; associated with use of shell-
trumpets, 199-200; Moto, the Mailu
name for, 200; in " pig-magic " in
New Guinea, 200; Raialean legend
of its association with the god Tan-
garoa, 202; on Triton poles in New
Caledonia, 202.

Oimlum verrucosum (Indo - Pacific
shell). In Californian graves, 192;
as an amulet in Pacific Islands, 192;
rubbed down on back like money-
cowry, 192; as ornament of witch-
craft packets in New Caledonia, 201.

Panchajana. 59.

Panchajanya. 59.

Pearls. Megalithic Culture associated
with, 14, 25, 27, 29, 72, 77, 90 ;
commerce in, 70, 72, 77, 88-89, 93-
95' 97-99' 107-109, 112-113, 120 5
superstitious reverence of, 70, 81,
86-87, 92» 100-103; medicinal use of,
70, 89, 91, 101; said to be con-
gealed dew-drops, 70, 72, 81, 85,

90, 120; as symbols of purity, 70;
Phoenician influence and the ap-
preciation of, 72-73, 76, 79, 82, 84-
85, 9S> 97-99 ; artificial production
of, 73, 104-106, 113; references in
Classics to, 73, 77, 81, 83, 87-88,
93-94, 96, 104: as earrings, 75,
78-81. 87-88, 109, 115, 119-120;
influence of thunderstorms on breed-
ing of, 77; in nose-rings, 78, 80,
120; solar origin attributed to, 78:
on coins, 79-80, 83: drilling of, 80,
86-87, 89, 101, 106, 112-117; refer-
ences in Scriptures to, 82: colour
of, 83, 86-87, 94- Ic>6; discovery
of, attributed to Krishna, 87; as
eyes for idols, 87; associated with
sharks, 88, 104; in making lime, 89,

91, 93-94: placed in mouth of dead,
89-90, 100-101, 106, 114, 204; as

2I4

Index— continued.

currency, 95, 115, 178; supposed
germination of, 95; associated with
dragon-protectors, 102-104; in North
American mounds, 112-117 ; as
"eggs" of shell-fish, 121.

Pearls. Use of: America, North, 112-
117; America, Central, 117-118, 120;
Assyria, 78; Astrakhan, 80; Baby-
lonia, 78-79; British Isles, 83-84;
Ceylon, 93; China, 95-106; Crimea,
80; Cyprus, 79; Ecuador, 121;
Egypt, 75-76; Europe, 85-86; Greece,
79-80; India, 87-89; Italy, 81-83;
Japan, 106; Korea, 204; Malay
Archipelago, 94-95; Mexico, 118-
120; Pacific Islands, 109; Palestine,
82: Persia, 78; Peru, 121; Siberia,
109; Syria, 79; Venezuela, 120.

Pearl-Fisheries. Africa, East, 76-77;
Alaska, 122; America, North, 112-
•117; British Isles, 83-85; Cali-
fornia, 118; Ceylon, 93; China, 96-
99; Ecuador, 121; Europe, 85-86;
India, 88-92; Japan, 106-107; Kamt-
chatka, 108; Manchuria, 107-108;
Malay Archipelago, 94-95; Mauri-
tania, 76; Mediterranean, 83; Mergui
Archipelago, 94 ; Mexico, 1 18 ;
Pacific Islands, 109-112; Panama,
120; Persian Gulf, 77-78; Red Sea,
73; Siam, 99-100; Siberia, 109:
Venezuela, 120.

Pearl-shells. Medicinal use of, 70, 91,
101; in graves, 74, 77, 84, no, 122;
commerce in, 74-75, 88-89, 93'95'
98-99; as breast ornaments, 74-75,
111-113, 118-120; receptacles for
paint, 76; in making pottery, 84;
calcined for making lime, 84, 91;
superstitious reverence of, 87, 92,
109-112; as fish-hooks, 109-110,201;
as temple offerings, no-ni; as eyes
for idols, in, 119: as eyes for
mummies, ill, 203.

Pearl-shells. Use of: Alaska, 122:
America, North, 117; British Isles,
83-84; California, 122: China, 98-
99, 101; Ecuador, 121; Egypt, 73-
75; India, 87: Italy, 14, 82; Malay
Archipelago, 94-95; Mexico, 119-120:
Nubia, 74; Pacific Islands, 109-112,
201-203; Palestine, 82: Peru, 12 1:
Rhodesia, 77, 84; Siam, 100.

Pearl-shellfish-hooks. As currency, no:
used for transmitting messages, no.

Phoenicians. Purple trade by, 3, 5,
10-12, 14, 93; discovery of purple
dye attributed to, 9, 195; purple

dye manufactured by, 6-7, 10-13, 17;

pearl-fisheries inaugurated by, 72-73,
76, 84-85, 99; pearl trade by, 79,
82, 97-99; known to Chinese as
Hormuzian or Hwang-tchi (yellow-
fingered) sea-traders, 99; skilled in
drilling pearls, 106; goddess of , with
conch-shell, 196.

Placuna-sheUs. Fisheries of, 89, 93,
95, 107; pearls found in, 89, 93.
95, 107.

Pregnancy. See Cowries; also Snail-
shells.

Pteroceras-she\\s, as cult-objects in
Egypt, 207 ; associated with phallic
god Min, 207 ; as trumpets in India,
38.

Purple Dye. Chief centres of production :
America, Central, 20-24; America,
South, 21, 25-27; British Isles, 15-
17; Mediterranean, 10-15; Mexico,
23-26.

Purple Dye. References in Classics to,
3, 4, 7, 10-15, 8l» :95; trade in, by
the Phoenicians, 3, 5, 10-17; process
of dyeing, 3, 6, 21-25; methods of
extraction, 3, 21-25; photogenetic
property of, 4, 5, 23; references in
Scriptures to, 7, ii; as paint, 8, 18,
19, 25, 26; as rouge, 8, 26; probable
first discovery in Crete, 9; associated
with megalithic culture, 14, 27-28.

Purple Dye. Molluscs whence derived;
Buccinnm, 4-7, 196; Murex trun-
cultts 5, 6, 9, 14; Murex branderis,
5, 6, 12, 13; Pur pur a lapilhts, 4,
5, 6, 15, 16, 196; Purpura HcBmas-
toma, 5, 13, 14, 20, 134; Purpura
patula, 20-21.

Purple Dye. Use of: America, Central,
20-24; America, South, 21, 25-27;
Babylonia. 7 ; British Isles, 4. 5,
15-18; China, 19; Egypt, 7, 9, n;
France, 14, 18; Japan, 19, 20;
Malaysia, 19; Mediterranean, 3, 7,
8, 14, 20, 81, 134, 195; Mexico, 23-
26; Norway, 1 8.

Purple robes, 7, 18, 24-26, 87, 93, 97,

195-
Purple-shell. On Tyrian coins, 5, 195:

found in caves, 13. 14, 82. See

also Purple dye.
Purple-shell fisheries. See Purple dye,

centres of production.
/'//;-/>//;-fl-shells, purple dye obtained

from, 4-6, 13-16, 20-21, 134, 196.

Index — continued.

21$

Ranella-shells. As trumpets, 40.

Scriptures. Purple mentioned in, 7, n;

pearls mentioned in, 82.
Seed-pearls. See Pearls.
Shell God. Sjee God in the Shell.
Shell-purple. See Purple dye.
Shell-money. See Cowries.
Shell-mounds, British Isles, 15, 16;

Chile, 26; Japan, 19; Mediterranean,

6, 9-!3-

Shells regarded as the birth-place of
human beings, 65-67, 176-177; re-
garded as the dwelling place of the
deity, 44, 64-66, 177, 202.

Shell-trumpets. Cave discoveries of,
13, 34-35, 82; on coins, 30; refer-
ences in Classics to, 30, 32; as war-
signals, 30, 33, 39, 41, 44-46, 197-
199, 202, 204; in religious ceremonies,
32, 33' 35-36, 44-45, 47-51, 54, 66,
198-201; at marriage ceremonies, 32,
37; in summoning the divinity, 34,

35, 51, 197; in harvest rites, 36-37,
49-51' 54» 198-201; in devil-driving,

36, 37, 41, 43, 198; at eclipses and
earthquakes, 36, 198; at death cere-
monies, 37, 38, 41, 44, 199; in
foundations of old houses in Ponape,
201. See also Initiation, Kava drink-
ing, Head-hunting, etc.

Shell-trumpets. Shells used for :
Buccinum, 32; Cassis, 38; Cassis
cornuta, 40, 43, 51; Cassis tubero-
sum, 39; Fusus, 39; Fusus probo-
scidifertts, 40; Fasciolaria gigantea,
50, 51; Fasciolaria princeps, 50;
203; Murex (Phyllonotus) radix,
49, 50 ; Murex trunc^^lus, 35 ;
Pterocera, 38; Ranella lam pas, 40;
Strombus, 40; Strombus galeatus,
48, 49, 203; Strombus gigas, 47;
Strombus goliath, 48 ; Strombus
maxim us, 198; Triton nodiferus,
30, 32-34; Triton tritonis, 39-45,
197-202; Turbinella pyrum (the
Chank), 35-38, 53-55; Turbinella
scolymus, 50.

Shell-trumpets. Use of : America,
Central, 47, 203; America, North,
48-49; Brazil, 48; British Isles, 32;
Ceylon, 38; China, 38-39. 203; Cor-
sica, 33; Crete, 14, 33, 204; Elba,
33; France, 33; Greece, 30; India,
35-38, 53-55, 203; Indonesia, 39-41,
197-201, 203; Italy, 14, 32: Japan,

39, 203; Laccadive Islands, 38;
Madagascar, 197; Melanesia, 41-43,
204; Mexico, 49-53; Micronesia, 46;
Peru, 46, 48, 203-204; Philippines,
40; Polynesia, 41, 44-46, 197, 201-
203; Russia, 32; Sicily, 32-33; Siam,
37; Thibet, 38.

Siva, Hindu god. Chank shell associa-
ted with, 53.

Snail-shells. Pregnancy associated with,
52, 54, 56; superstitious reverence
of, 92.

" Snail-stones. n 92.

Stromb^ts-shells, in Egyptian graves.
197; as trumpets, 40, 47-49, I9^,
203; pearls found in, 90, note 56.

Superstitious reverence of shell-trumpets,,
44, 66; of pearls, 70, 81, 86-87, 92>
100-103; of snail-shells, 92.

Tecciztecatl, Mexican Moon God.
Conch-shell associated with, 52, 56;
compared with Vishnu, 53-55; com-
pared with Maya Moon God, 56.

Tlaloc, Mexican Rain God. Conch-
shell associated with, 52, 54, 57;
compared with Varuna, the Hindu
god of the waters, 54; compared
with Chac, the Maya Rain God, 57;
claimed as equivalent to the Vedic
god, Indra, 58.

Tonatiuh, Mexican Sun God, associated
with fasting man blowing shell-
trumpet, 51.

Tortoise, The. Anthropomorphic figures
of, 56; Vishnu associated with, 59-
60; Maya gods associated with, 60;
Japanese god associated with, 63;
Chinese symbol for, 181-182; used
for divination, 182.

Tortoise-shells. As currency, 130, 178-
182.

Totemism and shell-trumpets, 42.

Triton, Neptune's trumpeter, with conchy
30.

Triton-shells. As symbols on Tyrian
coins, 5; in caves, 13, 34-35; as
trumpets, 30, 32-34, 39-45, 197-202;
on Minoan seals, 33-34; as designs
on Mycenaean pottery, 34; clay models
of, 34; in Minoan Sanctuaries, 35;
in Egyptian graves, 196-197; on
ceremonial poles in New Caledonia,
202;

Tridacna-shells. Pearls found in,
axes and other tools made from, xtl

216

Index— continued.

Turbinella-shells, as trumpets, 35-38,

50, 53-55; see also Chank shells.
Tyrian Purple. See Purple dye.

Varuna, Hindu god of the waters.
Chank shell associated with, 53-54;
compared with Tlaloc, the Mexican
Rain God, 54; characters of, assumed
by the Vedic god, Indra, 58.

Venus. Haliotis-shell known as Ear
of, xii; cowry-shell consecrated to,
xii; shell associated with birth of,
55; British pearls dedicated to, 83;
cowry-shell known as " Concha
Venerea," the shell of, 138.

Vishnu, Hindu god. Chank shell as-
sociated with, 35, 53, 58-59, 61,
195-196; incarnations of, 58-60, 63,
195; dog associated with, 195; com-
pared with Mexican gods, 53-55, with
Maya gods, 58-61; with Japanese
gods, 62-63.

War-signals. Shell-trumpets used as,

30, 33» 39' 4i» 44-46, 197-199' 201-
202, 204; cowries used as, 161, 190-
191.
White cowry. See Ovuluni ovum.

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JACKSON, J.W. tCB

151

Shells as evidence of .J3
the migrations of early
culture.