40 OKHAMANDAL MARINE ZOOLOGY PART II 



and the evil eye, though now it is more generally considered as a sept badge. The 

 custom of long-settled Malayali immigrants (Mukuvans, etc.) on the South Canara 

 coast, of putting similar necklaces round their children's necks already referred to on 

 p. 36, appears to furnish strong corroboration of this conclusion. 



In Bengal a few ornamental finger rings are now made, carved in simple patterns 

 and highly polished. These are not in great demand, and I am uncertain as to whether 

 they are worn as ornaments or as amulets. At Kilakarai a few roughly decorated 

 thin finger-rings to be used as amulets are also produced, in addition to the roughly 

 made, thick and clumsy sections cut from Strombus shells. 



The first mention of the use of discs cut from chank-shells to ornament caps and 

 headdresses occurs in Ta vernier's " Indian Travels." In 1666 he was in Dacca and 

 records the fact that Bhutan merchants took home quantities of " round and square 

 pieces (of shell) of the size of our 15 sol coins." He also states that " all the people 

 of the north, men, women, girls and boys, suspend small pieces of shell both round 

 and square from their hair and ears." 



Whether the trade is as large as in former days, I cannot say. It is now of small 

 monetary value. 



The Nagas of Assam, lately brought to prominent notice through the good work 

 they did as carriers during the Abor punitive expedition (1912), employ these discs 

 both to form necklaces and to decorate the handsome plaited cane helmets worn by the 

 men. These latter are conical in shape, about a foot high, and covered with a layer 

 of fur and hair, black or red in colour. When decorated with chank-shell discs, these 

 are arranged as coronals, adding most effectively to the general design (W. Crooke, 

 " Natives of Northern India," p. 47, London, 1907). As the Nagas are known to have 

 set much greater store by the chank in former times, say prior to the middle of the 

 nineteenth century, it is probable that then the use of charik discs as items of ornament 

 was much more general among this race than it is now. Still the custom is quite common, 

 for Mr. Stanley Kemp, who accompanied the Abor expedition as naturalist, informs 

 me that the Naga coolies employed as carriers frequently wore necklaces formed of 

 square concave portions of chank-shell with a large cornelian set en cabochon in the centre. 

 Sometimes long cylindrical beads made from chank shell, tapered slightly at either end, 

 were used instead and cornelian beads were often seen in conjunction. 



In the middle of last century Major John Butler mentions (" Travels and Adven- 

 tures in the Province of Assam," p. 148, London, 1855) that at sixteen years of age a 

 Naga youth " puts on ivory armlets or else wooden or red-coloured cane ones round 

 his neck. He suspends conch shells with a black thread " (round his neck) " puts 

 brass ornaments into his ears and wears the black kilt ; and if a man has killed another 

 in war he wears three or four rows of cowries round the kilt." From a specimen of 

 chank-shell necklace from the Naga hills contained in the ethnological collection of the 

 Indian Museum, Calcutta, it appears that the shells before being used were bisected 



