Art. IX. — The New Britain Currency, or Shell-money. 



By K H. RiCKARD. 



(Communicated by Rev. Lorimer Fison.) 



[Read September 11, 1890.] 



In this introductory paper I must take, almost without 

 option, the Money, or Currency, of the islanders as my 

 subject, for it is impossible to say much of these people 

 without frequent reference to it. 



The New Briton does not merely make money to live, 

 which he must do or die, but he lives to make money. This 

 is true not only of his fishing, planting, canoe-cutting, 

 ornament-making, and of the various employments of his 

 every-day life, but of his fighting and quarrelling, his 

 witchcraft (both offensive and defensive), and of his very 

 recreations — his feasts, his dances, and his secret associations 

 or clubs. He can never get a wife without it, and to be 

 buried without it is to become an evil spirit. 



Many customs have their origin in it, e.g., borrowing and 

 lending, pawning, 'most of the charm-making, besides most of 

 those above named. Hence it will readily be seen that it is 

 necessary that we should know what this money is, before 

 we speak on any of these subjects. 



On the Gazelle Peninsula, which is the more important 

 and more populated part of the island, it is called " tabu;" 

 and on the Duke of York Islands, which are twenty miles 

 away, it is called " diwara." It consists of small sea shells 

 of the Nassa genus, which are about f inches in length, and 

 proportionately thick. The back is chipped off so as to 

 make an aperture through the shell. These shells are then 

 strung or threaded closely and firml}'' in a uniform position 

 on pared strips of cane, or a split vine, about the size of half 

 of an ordinary straw. The latter is used onl}' when the 

 shell is new and the apertures rough and liable to catch on 

 the fibres of the cane. In either case, it is first threaded on 

 short pieces varying from twelve to twenty inches in length, 

 and these are joined by splitting one end of one piece of 

 the cane or vine, and pointing one end of another ; the [)oint 



