168 Shells as evidence of the Migrations, 
obtained by means of rafts made of the branches and 
leaves of the cocoa-nut lashed together and floated on 
the surface of the sea. The work was carried out by 
women. When sufficient animals had become attached 
to the rafts by climbing aloft among the branches, these 
were dragged ashore and the shells spread out on the 
sands to enable the sun to dry up the contained animals. 
The Arab author, Ebn Beithar, who died in 1248, also 
mentions the Maldives as a locality from which cowries 
were obtained.™ These islands are also referred to by 
Ibn Batita, the Arabian traveller of the 14th century, 
who speaks of the use of cowries (Wada) there as currency 
and alms-gifts."” 
At the beginning of the 17th century, 
Irancois Pyrard de Laval, observed the fishing of the 
cowries by the women of the Maldives. According to 
him they were collected twice a month, three days after 
the new moon and three days after the full moon. The 
shells were in such demand in India that sometimes 30 to 
40 ships were seen loaded with them. In Cambay and 
other Indian places, the prettiest were used as ornaments 
along with silver and gold, and held as great rarities, as 
if they were precious stones. They also passed current 
there as money under the name Boly, and at burials they 
were scattered on the way from the house of the defunct 
to the cemetery as alms for the poor.’"” Captain Owen, in 
1832," gives an account of the collecting of cowries in the 
Maldives somewhat similar to that of Masudi. He further 
remarks on the similarity of the rafts, or balsas, to those 
used on the coasts of Chili and Peru. 
Bengal seems to have been the great market for the 
cowries from the Maldives. From there they were widely 
19° Ade Schneider, of. ci/., p. 110. 
'81 See Translation by Lee, of. c//., pp, 178 & 181. 
'82 Schneider, of. ci/., p. TIL. 
18> Journ. Roy, Geog. Soc. Lond., vol. 2, 1832, pp. 82-3. 
oe 
