CHAPTER IV. 
The Use of Cowry-shells for the Purposes of 
Currency, Amulets, and Charms. 
Of the many varieties of shells used for currency and 
as amulets, the most familiar and extensively employed 
are the cowries, especially the money-cowry (Cyprea 
moneta) and the ring-cowry (Cyprea annulus) (Figs. 
A & f,p.156). The small size, shape, and substance of the 
latter renders them peculiarly adapted for use as money, 
and no other species of shell or form of shell-money has had 
so wide-spread and general use. They are distinguished by 
the fact that they can be and are used in a natural state, 
most other forms of shell-money being made from portions 
of larger species. Though known to science under two dis- 
tinct names, the difference between the two forms is so 
slight that by some authorities they are considered as 
merely the extremes of one variable mollusc." Both forms 
are inhabitants of Indo-Pacific seas, and the specimens 
used as currency are derived mainly from the Persian 
Gulf, Maldive Islands, Ceylon, the Malabar Coast, the 
Sooloo Islands (between the Philippines and Borneo), and 
other East Indian Islands ; also from various parts of the 
East African coast, ranging from Ras Flafun (near the 
1 Melvill and Standen, Journ. of Conchology, ix., 1899, p. 236; S. R 
Roberts, ** Monograph of the Family Cypreeide,” in Tryon’s ‘* Manual of 
Conchology,” vol. vii., 1885, p. 179. 
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