Introduction. xxi 
their ships and converting them into living beings. They 
painted representations of eyes upon the bows of their 
ships so that, as living things, they might be able to see 
their way. It is possible that the ship-builders of the 
Arabian littoral, the Far East, and Oceania, may have 
had in mind this double association (as an animating 
power and as eyes) when they adopted the custom of 
attaching cowries, or other shells, to the bows of their 
ships. 
Although Egypt has provided almost the earliest 
evidence” of the cultural use of the money-cowry, shells 
never played any prominent part in the lower Nile Valley. 
It is worthy of note, however, that the earliest gold 
* included a necklace of gold models of snail- 
jewelry,’ 
shells. 
So far as the evidence at present available justifies 
the expression of an opinion, it seems probable that the 
Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean constitute the 
original home of the world-wide cult of shells. The former 
probably supplied the cowries and pearls and the latter 
the invention of the shell-trumpet and the purple dye. 
But there are reasons for supposing that these varied uses 
of shells were intimately related genetically the one with 
the other. The sanctity of the trumpet was probably 
derived in some measure from the beliefs that had grown 
up around the cowry. The preparation of trumpets for 
temple service may have played some part in the discovery 
of the purple dye, for one of the purple shells is a decczz72. 
The association of the shells which produce pearls and 
12 The earliest cases of the use of the cowry may be those found in 
the graves at La Madelaine, Laugerie-Basse and Mentone. But I have 
suggested that although these graves are usually called ‘‘ palzeolithic”” they 
may not be any older than Predynastic Egyptian graves. (See pp. 134-138). 
18 G. A. Reisner, ‘‘ Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Dér,” Vol. 
I., 1908, Plates 6 and 7. 
