158 Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 
Ewe that if a woman died in childbirth she was not given 
the usual burial treatment, and was not buried in her hut. 
The same shells are also employed as eyes in the Begbowo 
idol, as an ornament of the fetish-priests and priestesses 
at their dance, as offerings to the protective deity and at 
ordeals, at which it depends upon whether the priest, who 
has taken two or three cowries in the mouth, retains them 
there or casts them out.” Zhe stmilarity of these customs 
to those current in other parts of the world is remarkable. 
As will be seen in the subsequent account, the association of 
the cowry-shell with pregnancy ts to be found in places so 
far away as India and Japan; while the spitting out of 
cowries appears to be identical with the medicine ceremontal 
of the Ojibwa and Menomini Indians of North America. 
According to Klose, Togo warriors wear caps orna- 
mented with cowries. As a protection from evil small 
children have a pair of consecrated cowries interwoven in 
the hair, while the women of the bush-people of the hinter- 
land fasten cowries as a fetish on the side of the head. 
Hunters, too, ornament therewith the butt-end of their 
flint-lock guns, in order to ensure success, and on a much 
honoured hunt-fetish in the neighbourhood of Soluga lay 
buffalo- and antelope-horns adorned with cowries. At 
the entrance to villages frequently stand clay-idols with 
cowry-eyes and shell-ornament, and in front of them lay 
abundant offerings of old spirit-flasks and calabashes 
filled with cowries. At ordeals for the detection of a mur- 
derer, the priests blow poison towards the sun out of a 
cowry-decorated pipe, which, when the suspicion is correct, 
falls down as blood, while at the trial of a thief two pieces of 
wood, adorned with a cowry at each end and wrapped 
round with a long cord, are made use of! 
1°*® Schneider, of. c/., pp. 169-170 (quoting Mischlich and Spiess). 
‘°° Schneider, of. cit., p. 170 (quoting Klose, ‘* Togo.”). 
