xxviii Introduction. 



concerning pearls proves quite conclusively that they share 

 all the virtues of cowries. This provides the answer to 

 the questions which the distinguished Dutch scholar con- 

 fessed his " incompetency to solve." 



In attempting to form some conception of the mode 

 of the easterly spread of these cultural developments 

 which originated in the Eastern Mediterranean and the 

 Red Sea it is important to remember that it was the 

 pearl-fishers themselves who played the chief part in the 

 wanderings. The obtrusive role played in India by all 

 the elements of the cult of shells ; the conception of the 

 Naga kings' home at the bottom of the sea ; the stories 

 of dragons guarding the treasure houses rich in gold, 

 pearls and precious stones ; the pearls which are found 

 under the dragon's tongue, or in the heads of serpents and 

 elephants ; and the sanctity of shell trumpets, their use 

 in religious ceremonial, and the reverence for and adora- 

 tion of them as the attribute of some deity (Vishnu ; and 

 in the Mediterranean, Triton, Neptune and Venus) or 

 even as its dwelling or its parent all these facts are so 

 many testimonies of the intimacy of the connexions 

 which have linked these beliefs concerning shells with the 

 deepest emotions and the most earnest strivings of the 

 human spirit for assurance and consolation. 



G. ELLIOT SMITH. 



