Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amutets, etc. 139 
this group of shells, “Cypraea, or more classically Cypria, 
is derived from one of the many attributes of Aphrodite, 
owing, doubtless, to her worship not only having been 
inaugurated, but for long years principally centralized, in 
Cyprus, then a luxuriant and smiling island, teeming with 
industrial wealth. Horace” addresses her as ‘Diva potens 
Cypri, and Tibullus,"** when apostrophizing the goddess, 
thus : ‘Et faveas concha, Cypria, vecta tua.’” 
As previously remarked, cowries were worn as amulets 
by the women of Pompeii in order to prevent sterility. The 
presence of these shells in women’s-graves in France and 
the South of England seems to point to the prevalence 
of the same ideas in the Middle Ages. 
In the 18th century the custom of wearing a large 
cowry as an amulet or charm was prevalent among Ken- 
dure Tartar women and girls.” And in the neighbourhood 
of Naples, cowries, it is stated, are still worn by the poorer 
class.” Money-cowries are used by the Bedouin women 
of the Hadramaut, South Arabia, to adorn their girdles ;” 
also by the women of the races of the Volga region, as 
breast and forehead ornaments by the Tshuwash and 
Mordvins, and as necklaces by the Tsheremis. They are 
also to be seen on the necks of the Kirghis women, and 
on the curious head-dresses of the Bashkir women ;” and 
a Horaces Odrys tao te 
Soe davtouillsse Ws As 
49 G. A. Cooke, ‘‘System of Universal Geography,” vol. 1. (1801), 
p. 448. 
5° Faussett, ‘‘Inventorium Sepulchrale,”’ 1856, p. 68. 
61 Schneider, of. cz¢., p. 1173 Strabo, bk. xvi., ch. iv., par. 17 (Bohn’s 
Ed., vol. iii., p. 202), speaking of the Troglodyte of the Arabian Gulf says: 
‘** The women carefully paint themselves with antimony. They wear about 
their necks shells, as a protection against fascination by witchcraft.” 
52 Schneider, of. czt., p. 1173 Ratzel, ‘* History of Mankind,” iii., 
p. 327, gives a figure of one of these Bashkir head-dresses ornamented with 
small cowries. 
