l62 



end from the cord encircHno- the neck, the whole forminor 

 a most uncomfortable-looking decoration, particularly 

 as the custom is to wear them slung at the back of the 

 neck.* 



Sixty years ago chanks constituted the currency of 

 the Naga tribes, but with the advent of the rupee, the 

 consideration in which these shells was held largely 

 disappeared, and now these quaint chank necklaces are 

 seldom worn. Mr. Kemp saw them worn on only one or 

 two occasions during the Abor expedition (191 2). 



At death these ornaments and all the other items of 

 the deceased's dress too-ether with all his treasured 

 weapons are laid upon the grave. 



Among the Aborsthe custom of wearing chank orna- 

 ments m.ust be very rare, for Mr. Kemp, who most kindly 

 gave attention to this subject, saw only a single instance 

 — a Gam or headman of Komsing village, who was found 

 wearing a necklace composed of round concave discs of 

 shell. 



The furthest point east to which I have been able to 

 trace the use of chank discs is the banks of the Upper 

 Mekono- to the northward of Tali-fu in the Chinese 

 Province of Yunnan. Here Prince Henri d'Orleans 

 (" From Tonkin to India," p. 174, London, 1898) 

 found the women of the wild Lissu tribe, a branch of 

 the Lolo race, " often naked to the w^aist ; they had a 

 little hempen skirt and a Chinese cap decked with 

 cowries and round white discs which are said to be 

 brought from Thibet and looked to me as if cut out of 

 large shells." In some villages they wore a heavy 

 turban in place of the little white disc'd cap. 



The finest discs I have seen are prehistoric in age, 

 having been taken from the very peculiar oblong 

 sarcophagi, made of red pottery and raised on 6 or 8 

 stumpy legs, from the ancient graves at Perambair in the 

 south of Chingleput District, near Madras. These discs, 



* Similarly bisected chanks hung by a cord round the neck are also 

 seen among the Chins of the Central and Northern sections of the Chin 

 hills in Burma. My informant, Mr. W. Street of the Burma Commission, 

 states that the women alone wear this neck ornament ; usually a single shell 

 is used and apparently fresh supplies no longer come into the country as 

 those now worn are heirlooms in the families of the wearers. It is probable 

 that ces.sation of the supply synchronized with the discontinuance of chank 

 shell currency among the Naga tribes living to the north of the Chin country. 



