Introduction. xxi 



their ships and converting them into living beings. They 

 painted representations of eyes upon the bows of their 

 ships so that, as living things, they might be able to see 

 their way. It is possible that the ship-builders of the 

 Arabian littoral, the Far East, and Oceania, may have 

 had in mind this double association (as an animating 

 power and as eyes) when the}- adopted the custom of 

 attaching cowries, or other shells, to the bows of their 

 ships. 



Although Egypt has provided almost the earliest 

 evidence 1 - of the cultural use of the money-cowry, shells 

 never played any prominent part in the lower Nile Valley. 

 It is worthy of note, however, that the earliest gold 

 jewelry, 13 included a necklace of gold models of snail- 

 shells. 



So far as the evidence at present available justifies 

 the expression of an opinion, it seems probable that the 

 Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean constitute the 

 original home of the world-wide cult of shells. The former 

 probably supplied the cowries and pearls and the latter 

 the invention of the shell-trumpet and the purple dye. 

 But there are reasons for supposing that these varied uses 

 of shells were intimately related genetically the one with 

 the other. The sanctity of the trumpet was probably 

 derived in some measure from the beliefs that had grown 

 up around the cowry. The preparation of trumpets for 

 temple service may have played some part in the discovery 

 of the purple dye, for one of the purple shells is a bnccinuin. 

 The association of the shells which produce pearls and 



1 - The earliest cases of the use of the cowry may be those found in 

 the graves at La Madelaine, Laugerie- Basse and Mentone. But I have 

 suggested that although these graves are usually called " palaeolithic '' they 

 may not be any older than Predynastic Egyptian graves. (See pp. 134-138). 



i:i G. A. Reisner, " Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Der," Vol. 

 I., 1908, Plates 6 and 7. 



