164 Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 
great figure of Olukun himself sits a priest, half hidden 
by long strings of cowries hung from the roof. At Igo, a 
town on the Gilly Gilly road, there is a mound on which 
is an altar to Olukun with chalk cones and cowries on it, 
all covered by a shed. The presence of an Odigi, or 
sacred well, is generally made known along the roads 
by a tree and a mound of earth and cowries."™ The 
shells are also scattered at certain death ceremonies. '* 
Their association with marriage is seen by the fact that 
among the upper class cowries, together with kola-nuts 
and palm-wine, are given as presents on betrothal. 
“Often on the roads one passes a small tree planted by 
the side of the road, near which are chalk marks and a 
mound of earth, cowries, yams and plantains, This tree 
has been planted in memory of the fact that some woman 
or other has brought forth a child on that spot.”"” 
On the Bonny river, at Ibo on the Niger, and in other 
places of the Niger-delta, cowries have, or had until quite 
recently, general currency. In this neighbourhood also it 
is the custom, at the interment of a chief, to bury all his 
treasure with him in the grave. The brothers Lander 
narrate that when they visited Idda, on the left bank of 
the Niger, much consternation and indignation prevailed, 
owing to the fact that the new chief had again exhumed 
and misappropriated for his own use the treasure of 
cowries which had been buried with his father. 
In India the money-cowry seems to have been 
regarded with special favour for amuletic and currency 
purposes from very early times. It has been met with 
on several pre-historic sites accompanied with bangles 
made from the sacred chank shell, 7urdinella pyrum, and 
121 Jhid,, pp. 222-4, and 227. 
122 bid, p. 207. 
188 Jbid., pp. 198-9. 
424 Schneider, of. ci/., pp. 156-7. 
