Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amutets, etc. 141 
whose headman practised soothsaying with cowries. He 
threw several cowry-shells, and made his prediction from 
the manner in which they fell. 
At Sennaar, in the Soudan, cowry-ornament still 
obtains to-day among the Hassanieh Arabs. Caillarud, 
in the 20th year of last century, saw cowries ornamenting 
the fringed girdle of the young girls in Sennaar. Accord- 
ing to Carl Ritter, they are still found as trimmings for 
women’s girdles in Abyssinia ;“ and Haldeman” describes 
a curious Abyssinian necklace composed of European 
beads, cowry-shells, bits of brass, copper coins, etc. 
According to Schneider (o/. e77., p. 173), a large leather 
object from Somaliland, richly ornamented with cowries, 
is in the Dresden Museum,” and a similar object, orna- 
mented in the same way, was brought from Somaliland 
by Riebeck in 1883. That the cowry was in use here in 
early times is proved by the discovery of Cyprea annulus, 
along with glass, enamel, stone and other objects, in the 
ruins of Bender Abbas, near Berbera. The age of these 
ruins is still problematic ; they may belong to “ Persian 
times.” © 
Presumably this refers to the period of the 
Persian conquest of Egypt in the sixth century B.C, 
In the Upper Nile region cowries, rubbed down on 
their backs, are used by many negro peoples. The Lango, 
Latuka, Lur, Shuli and Nuer have very many cowry- 
ornaments, more especially on their head-coverings. Ac- 
cording to Ratzel (of. céz., ii1., p. 30), the head-coverings of 
the Shuli and Lango “ consist of strong bass-matting, close 
set with concentric rows of cowries, with a woven blunt 
appendage, shaped either like a flat conical cup or like a 
EWS CHNEIGENg Opa Geean Pe li7ige 
®8 §, S. Haldeman, ‘United States Geographical Surveys West of the 
tooth Meridian,” vol. vii., Archzology, 1879, p. 263. 
59 See also Ratzel, of. czt., i1., fig. 14 of plate facing p. 533. 
69 Schneider, of. cé¢., p. 118. 
