70 Beautiful Shells. 
Cowries are obtained principally about the Philip- 
pine Islands, the Maldive Islands, and the coast of 
Congo, where, after high tides, the women collect 
them in baskets, mixed with sand, from which they 
are afterwards separated and cleaned, when they 
are ready for the market. 
They are only useful as coin so long as they 
remain unbroken. The value of a single shell is 


very small, as the following table will show :— 
Four Cowries make one gunder; twenty Gunders 
one punn; four Punns one anna; four Annas one 
cahaun; and four Cahauns one rupee. The value 
of the latter coin is equal to two shillings and 
threepence, English money, and this would be 
exchangeable for five thousand one hundred and 
twenty Cowries; so that it would never do to pay 
large sums in this kind of coin: a waggon would 
be required to convey a few pounds with. In this 
country the Money Cowries are frequently used as 
