APPENDIX II. 
The following interesting information has reached 
us as we are going to press. 
What appears to be an additional instance of the cultural 
use of the money-cowry in the New World is to be seen in 
a picture reproduced by S. H. C. Hawtrey, in ‘‘ The Lengua 
Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco.”! In Figure 2 (p. 282) 
this writer shows the head of a Lengua Indian with a re- 
markable headdress on which money-cowries are distinctly 
visible arranged in rows. No reference to these is made in 
the text. iSuch a type of cowry-ornamented headdress 
recalls those ‘of the East African people described in 
Chapter IV. (p. 142) of this book. 
That shells were cult-objects in early times in Egypt 
seems certain, from their occurrence in numbers in ancient 
Egyptian sites. But too little attention has been paid to 
these discoveries and their true significance has not been 
appreciated, investigators having too littke knowledge of 
shells and their habitats to realise the importance of their 
presence in ancient tombs. Nearly all the shells recorded 
as found in Egyptian tombs are species which inhabit the 
Red ‘Sea and the adjacent African coast. jHence it is 
probable that all these shell-cults had their origin in this 
region, that is they were developed by a maritime people, 
or people having ready access to the sea. Suggestive 
evidence of this is furnished by the fact that Red Sea 
Pteroceras-shells (P/eroceras bryonia, Gmelin) figure as 
designs on statues of the phallic god Min found on the site 
of the temple of Koptos. Some authorities think these 
statues belong to the Predynastic period, but others regard 
them as the earliest work of the dynastic people. Their 
presence at Koptos has been claimed as providing “a 
powerful argument to those who wish to bring the dynastic 
Egyptians from the land of Punt, situated on the east coast 
of Africa, on the borders of the Red Sea.’ But diffusion 
of culture can explain the facts without dragging into the 
discussion these purely hypothetical and utterly misleading 
1 Journ. Anthrop. Inst., 31, 1901, pp. 280 ef seg. 
Petrie, ‘‘ Koptos,” 1896, pp. 7—9, pl. ili., iv. ; also Capart, ** Primi- 
tive Art in Egypt,” 1905, pp. 222—224, figs. 166—167. 
(207) 
