206 Appendix. 
are the parents of mankind and the dwelling-places of 
gods. They can summon the gods to be present at 
ceremonies of initiation, at deaths and burials, in battle 
and in harvesting. Whether as cowry-amulets or blasts 
upon the shell-trumpet they are used to convey messages 
of war and death, or to summon the people from agricul- 
tural occupations, or to greet important strangers. As 
medicine they can restore the “soul-substance,” the loss 
of which is responsible for illness or death. 
These remarkable attributes of shells are found wide- 
spread in the Old World and the New, and afford the 
most positive and unequivocal evidence of the migration 
of early culture along certain well-defined routes around 
the earth. 
