xxii Introduction. 



those used for trumpets, often in the same beds ; the fact 

 that some of the trumpet-shells yield pearl-like bodies 

 which are put to cultural uses ; and the transference to 

 pearls of some of the magical attributes of the cowry all 

 of these considerations suggest the intimate genetic rela- 

 tions of all of these special appreciations of the value of 

 shells. Moreover the two areas were linked together at a 

 very remote historical period. At least as early as the 

 Third Dynasty Egyptian sailors were engaged in mari- 

 time trafficking both in the Red Sea and the Eastern 

 Mediterranean, and beliefs in the magical properties of 

 shells no doubt were constantly being exchanged between 

 the inhabitants of the shores of the two seas. Pliny men- 

 tions a legend of the relationship of the Minaeans and 

 Rhadamaeans of Southern Arabia to Minos of Crete and 

 his brother Rhadamanthus. When the intimate relations 

 between the shell-cults of the Red Sea and of Crete are 

 recalled one is inclined to attach some significance to 

 Pliny's story, even though he himself was sceptical of it. 



Cyprus is intimately linked with the cult of the 

 cowry as well as with the working of copper an associa- 

 tion to which I shall refer later. 



Crete, so far as is known, was the original home of 

 the conch-shell trumpet and the manufacture of purple 

 dye. The Phoenicians, with whom these things are often 

 associated, were no more than the chief agents for dis- 

 tributing them abroad. 



In studying the geographical distribution of the use 

 of conch-shell trumpets, of the purple dye and of a special 

 appreciation of pearls, one cannot fail to be struck with 

 their associations. 



Mr. \V. J. Perry has called attention to the remarkable 

 identity of the 14 geographical distribution of megalithic 1 



14 Manchester Memoirs (Lit. and Phil. Soc.), November 24, 1915. 



