Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amutets, etc. 181 
This suggests the possibility of the so-called “ tortoise- 
shells” being really cowries. 
From the following facts it is obvious that some con- 
fusion has taken place with regard to the interpretation of 
certain symbols in ancient Chinese works. 
In Dr. Morrison’s “ Dictionary of the Chinese Lan- 
guage ”’” a symbol known as fez (see Fig. C, p. 180), is 
translated (p. 622, No. 8471) as “the tortoise shell or 
pearl-oyster shell”: on an earlier page (p. 510, No. 6811) 
quite a distinct symbol, #zve7, is translated “tortoise,” and 
the fez symbol is attached to denote “tortoise shell ”— 
kwez pet (see Fig. D, p. 180). 
In a Chinese work, the “22 Kz,’ or “Treatises on 
Ceremonial Uses” (referred to on a later page) the pez 
symbol (/7zg. C, p. 180) is used to denote a particular object 
placed in the mouth of the dead. The symbol in this 
case has been correctly interpreted by the translator of 
the work as meaning “ cowry.” 
In the “Shoo King” (v., xxii. 19), the same symbols 
(fzg. A, p. 180) as quoted by Lacouperie for the “great 
shells” (ze, cowries) of the Wang Mang currency, are 
used in a paragraph describing a display of various precious 
relics. But these characters have been translated by Dr. 
Legge, in his “ Chinese Classics,”"’ as the “ great tortoise- 
shell.” 
the. imbuteor Yu. (“Shoo King, iit, £, 52) refers 
to a particular object presented to Yu from the country 
of the nine Kéang, the symbol denoting this object being 
the Kwez (No. 6811, p. 510) of Morrison’s Dictionary 
(Fig. B,p. 180). It is here translated by Legge as “ the 
great tortoise,” 1” In his footnotes to this passage the trans- 
lator states that “ according to the ‘Historical Records’ the 
175 Dr. R. Morrison, ‘* Dictionary of the Chinese Language,” 1819, 
VOlonlesy Pusat 
176 Dr. J. Legge, ‘‘ Chinese Classics,” 1865, vol. lii., pt. il., p. 554- 
SIO ria VOVe Alles Pty Lay Da LLOs 
