Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amutlets, etc. 155 
other philosophers, that nothing created was annihilated, 
and that to cease to be was only to assume another form, 
dissolution being merely the passage to reproduction. 
In its association with the Borfimor [avd zn thzs connection 
the presence of the cowry must not be overlooked], we 
seem to have the reflection of some such ideas, the fetish 
being animated by the indwelling life of the victim and 
the spirit attracted to it.” 
The Borfimor bag also contained a pebble made of 
some earthy matter and lime, in one side of which was 
incorporated a cowry-shell. 
The remarkable resemblance in the use of the money- 
cowry here to that of the Ojibwa and Menomini tribes 
of North America, who also employ the same shell, has 
been pointed out already in a previous paper.’” 
In Liberia, according to Stewart Culin, pierced 
cowry-shells (z.e., rubbed down on the back) are used in 
fortune-tellinge, (See Az¢. #9, 156). Ratzel (op. czz, 111., 
p. 105) also gives a figure (f. 6) of a sword-sheath from 
Liberia which is ornamented with cowries arranged in 
stars. 
Bowdich, who in 1817 was sent on a mission of peace 
from Cape Coast Castle to Kumassi, mentions that in 
Accra, as in Gaman, Kong and other neighbouring places, 
cowries had currency. 
North of Ashanti proper, in Koranza and Atabuobo, 
Perregaux found them in full use and of higher value than 
on the coast. According to this observer, in Koranza, 
they were counted per thousand, and 100 cowries were 
102 The italicized sentence is my own. 
103 J. W. Jackson, ‘‘ The Money Cowry (Cyprwa moneta, L.) as a 
Sacred Object among North American Indians,” AZanch. AZemozrs (Lit. and 
Phtl, Soc.), vol. 1x. (1916), No. 4. See also p. 184 of this chapter. 
104 Culin, ‘‘Chess and Playing Cards,” of. cit., p. $15, footnote, and 
fig. 134 on p. 817. 
