1S ge) 
Lissus, a section of the Lolo tribe, mountaineers 
living in the upper valley of the Mekong in Yun- 
nan, “employing chank shell discs to ornament their 
Chinese caps. It may be that these Lissus and 
cognate tribes represent those chank jewel wearers 
whom Tavernier refers to as belonging to the kingdom 
of Siam. In this latter country at the present day I 
know of no utilization of chanks in personal adornment. 
The chank is one of the eight lucky signs recognized 
by Buddhists of the Nor thern cult and as such is con- 
stantly reproduced in Buddhist ornamentation in Thibet 
and Bhutan.* It may therefore be inferred that the use 
of it in personal adornment has a like reason ; whether in 
the form ofa bangle, acap ora hair ornament, a necklace 
or a breast disc, it is employed as a talisman to ensure 
good fortune, and possibly even as an amulet against 
the evil eye, as is the chank shell placed on the forehead 
of draft bulls in Southern India. 
(2) The Tribes and Castes which wear Chank Bangles 
on the South of Indra. 
In the Madras Presidency and the associated native 
states, the castes whose women systematically wear 
chank bangles are few and if we except the wandering 
tribes of the Lambadis (or Brinjaris), Koravars and 
Kurivikkarans, the custom appears confined to a sub- 
division ‘of each Caste or-tribes Whether it hades 
totemistic origin and significance as it still has among 
non-Hinduised tribes in Bengal, Behar and Chota 
Nagpur is not at present clear. If it had, the original 
tribal sept, usually exogamous, has become changed to 
a caste sub-division, invariably endogamous. And 
whereas among the septs of those animistic tribes in 
Northern India which are named after the chank this 
shell is taboo with them, it forms the characteristic 
ornament of the women of the caste sub-divisions named 
after it, in Southern India. 
Only inthe Kongu country, which coincides roughly 
with the present inland districts of Coimbatore and 
Salem, does the custom continue to flourish at all 
strongly. Coimbatore is the great centre of the custom 
* J. Claude White, Joc. ci¢., p. 46. 
