Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 139 



this group of shells, " Cyprrea, or more classically Cypria, 

 is derived from one of the many attributes of Aphrodite, 

 owing, doubtless, to her worship not only having been 

 inaugurated, but for long years principally centralized, in 

 Cyprus, then a luxuriant and smiling island, teeming with 

 industrial wealth. Horace 47 addresses her as 'Diva potens 

 Cypri/ and Tibullus, 48 when apostrophizing the goddess, 

 thus : ' Et faveas concha, Cypria, vecta tua.' " 



As previously remarked, cowries were worn as amulets 

 by the women of Pompeii in order to prevent sterility. The 

 presence of these shells in women's-graves in France and 

 the South of England seems to point to the prevalence 

 of the same ideas in the Middle Ages. 



In the 1 8th century the custom of wearing a large 

 cowry as an amulet or charm was prevalent among Ken- 

 dure Tartar women and girls. 49 And in the neighbourhood 

 of Naples, cowries, it is stated, are still worn by the poorer 

 class. 50 Money-cowries are used by the Bedouin women 

 of the Hadramaut, South Arabia, to adorn their girdles ; 51 

 also by the women of the races of the Volga region, as 

 breast and forehead ornaments by the Tshuwash and 

 Mordvins, and as necklaces by the Tsheremis. They are 

 also to be seen on the necks of the Kirghis women, and 

 on the curious head-dresses of the Bashkir women ; 5 ~ and 



47 Horace, Od., I, 3, I. 



48 Tibullus, III., 3, 4. 



49 G. A. Cooke, "System of Universal Geography," vol. i. (1801), 

 p. 448. 



50 Faussett, " Inventorium Sepulchrale," 1856, p. 68. 



51 Schneider, op. cit., p. 117 ; Strabo, bk. xvi., ch. iv., par. 17 (Bonn's 

 Ed., vol. iii., p. 202), speaking of the Troglodyte of the Arabian Gulf says: 

 " The women carefully paint themselves with antimony. They wear about 

 their necks shells, as a protection against fascination by witchcraft/' 



62 Schneider, op. cit.^ p. 117; Ratzel, "History of Mankind/' iii., 

 p. 327, gives a figure of one of these Bashkir head-dresses ornamented with 

 small cowries. 



