Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 142 
‘ J : “, ? 43 
the Turkish. Crescent ” (of. czz., p..253, pl. 25), figures and 
describes two curious head-dresses worn by the Ja-luo of 
Kavirondo, one consisting of ram’s horns and cowries, the 
other of reed-buck’s horns and cowries. These remind us, 
Ridgeway remarks, of the combination of boars’ tusks and 
cowries in Greece (supra p. 140). Captain k. F, Burton 
gives us an interesting account of the cowry-trade of the 
regions north of the ‘Land of the Moon, in his description 
of “The Lake’ Kegions. of* Central: Equatorial Africa.“ 
The cowries, he reports, are collected from various places 
between Ras Hafun and Mozambique, the trade being 
in the hands of Moslem hucksters. They are purchased 
on the mainland by a curious specimen of the ‘ round- 
trade’; money is not taken, so the article is sold measure 
for measure of holcus grain. From Zanzibar the use of 
cowries spreads in two directions; one to the regions 
north of the ‘Land of the Moon’ where they form the 
currency, though they are also occasionally in demand as 
an ornament in Unyamwesi;” the other to the West 
African coast. That the collecting of cowries on the East 
African coast dates from ancient times is evident from 
the list of articles of export at Rhapta in the first century 
A.D. Among the articles mentioned in the “ Periplus ”™ 
as exported from this place—the Quiloa or Kilwa of 
modern times—is an item, Nav7Avos oAlyos (222. little sea- 
shell), a term which has given rise to some discussion, 
Vincent” says: “It seems to be an inferior tortoise-shell 
from the context” (which he translates, “ tortoise-shell of 
superior kind, but not equal to the Indian ; and a small 
8* Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc. Loind., vol. 29, 1859, p. 448. 
67 See Ratzel, of. czt., i1., plate facing p. 533, fig. I, for cowry orna- 
mented head-dress of Wanyamwesi. 
8S Vincent, ‘‘ The Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the 
Indian Ocean,” London, 1807, vol. ii., p. 172. 
69 /bid., p. 748. 
