Etlinogra2>liy i)f IMicroncsia. 



167 



shell the greater is its value. The size, that is the value, is 

 measured by the outstretched fingers. A single large shell is 

 worth a string of smaller pieces, and sometimes a small piece of 

 stone money, for it is the stone money that is the highest in 

 value. The shell money is not used as ornament. As already 

 described, however, the natives obtain culinary tools and fishing 

 hooks from shells of this kind. The shells are useful to the 

 islanders in various ways and consequently are in great demand, 

 but they are difficult to obtain, which circumstance perhaps ex- 

 plains why they are used as money. When an influential native 



dies, two pieces of shell 

 money are placed upon 

 the body, so that, ac- 

 cording to the native 

 belief, the deceased may 

 buy food with them on 

 his way to heaven. ^ 



As above mentioned, 

 in Yap there are only 

 two kinds of money pro- 

 per, the stone and shell 

 money. But necklaces 

 made of light scarlet 

 shells and mats of tlio 

 lemon hibiscus tree, 

 which are articles highly 

 prized by the natives, 

 are also employed as 



Fig. 72.— Two kinds of sheU money from Yap. mcdium of exchange. 



^ W. U. Fnrness, " The Islund of Stone Money," p. ir4. 



