Introduction, 



Xlll 



sprung out of the fanciful resemblance which a particular 

 group of primitive men imagined they could detect between 

 the cowry and the female organs of reproduction. 



In his remarkable work " D'Amboinsche Rariteit- 

 kamer," published in Amsterdam in 1741, Rumphius 

 informs his readers that the cowry was referred to by 

 Ennius under the name "matriculus "; and he explains the 

 meaning of this expression thus : " Apud utorsque nomen 

 accepterunt a similitudine pudendi muliebris, quod Graeci 

 Chaeron, Latini porcum et porculum vocant, cujus aliquam 

 similitudinem refert hujus Conchaerina " (II Boek, p. 1 13). 

 Twenty-one years later Adanson, in his " Histoire natur- 

 elle du Senegal,'" 2 referring to the use of the terms 

 " Pucelage " and " Concha Venerea," says : " Concha 

 Venerea sic dicta quia partem foemineam quodam modo 

 repraesentat : externe quidem per labiorum fissuram, 

 interne vero propter cavitatem uterum mentientem. . . . 

 Sunto igitur dictae Porcellanae (id est Venereae) ob 

 aliquam cum pudendo muliebri similitudinem." Aldrov. 

 Exang., p. 552. These ideas are still current in Japan at 

 the present day. 3 



That such fancied resemblances were really regarded I 

 so seriously in ancient times as to confer vital powers 

 upon the simulating object has just been claimed for the 

 mandrake by Dr. Rendel Harris. 4 He refers the origin 

 of this association to Cyprus, which also gave the cowry 

 its scientific name, Cyprs:a ; and in attributing the origin 

 of the cult of Aphrodite to the magical fertilising property 

 of the anthropoid mandrake (when worn against the flesh 



- " Coquillages," p. 65 Paris, 1762. 



:5 W. L. Hildburgh, " Some Japanese Charms connected with the 

 making of Clothing," Man, Feb., 1917, p. 28. (See the Appendix of this 

 book, p. 205). 



4 " The Origin of the Cult of Aphrodite," Manchester, 1916, republished 

 in his "Ascent of Olympus," 1917. 



