Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 153 
ey z) iP) 
hung with cowry-shells. The men-folk of the pagan 
Kado negro in southern Haussaland, wear, according to 
Rohlfs, a skin-apron hung with cowries, and the young 
virls of the Kedje negro fasten on their leather-girdles a 
bundle of small shells presented to them by their bride- 
grooms. Barth mentions shell-ornament as in use by the 
young women and girls of the Marghi, and in Bagirmi, by 
the pagan population in the south. The women especially 
wear such ornament of cowries, and caps too are made 
thereof, with which to decorate the heads of deceased 
relations. Nachtigal also states that in this neighbour- 
hood, at the funeral of a chief, “a small gourd-shell 
full of beads and cowries was placed on the mouth in 
order to serve to some extent as travelling expenses.” 
According to Rohlfs, the Mahommedan Aulad Rashid 
(Arabs in N.W. Darfur) decorate the hair-plaits of their 
camels and horses with the porcelain-shells, and the 
women of Pebu adorn their arms with them. According 
to Nachtigal, the wood- or tin-trombone, about one and 
a half metres long, the hollowed antelope-horn, and the 
short pipes of wood, brass or horn, which emitted such 
terrible tones at festive processions of the Sheikhs in 
Bornu, were al] adorned with numerous cowries on the 
surface. The Kawembu in Kanem and the Buduma of 
the islands of Lake Chad also wear neck-chains of cowries. 
The shells are a market-article in Kuka. They are taken 
as an article of barter in journeys from Kuka to Bagirmi 
and Wadai, where, especially by the native Arab and also 
by the pagan negro, they are used as ornament. The 
Mahommedan women in Bagirmi wear cowry neck-chains ; 
the wives of the pagans in the Mofu district wear the 
shells on the girdle and apron strings. In Abeshr 
(Wadai), at the wedding of the king’s daughter, thirty 
large baskets, adorned with shells or beads, were carried 
