Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 143 



the Turkish Crescent" (op. cit. y p. 253, pi. 25), figures and 

 describes two curious head-dresses worn by the Ja-luo of 

 Kavirondo, one consisting of ram's horns and cowries, the 

 other of reed-buck's horns and cowries. These remind us, 

 Ridgeway remarks, of the combination of boars' tusks and 

 cowries in Greece (supra p. 140). Captain R. F. Burton 

 gives us an interesting account of the cowry-trade of the 

 regions north of the 'Land of the Moon,' in his description 

 of " The Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa. 86 

 The cowries, he reports, are collected from various places 

 between Ras Hafun and Mozambique, the trade being 

 in the hands of Moslem hucksters. They are purchased 

 on the mainland by a curious specimen of the ' round- 

 trade'; money is not taken, so the article is sold measure 

 for measure of holcus grain. From Zanzibar the use of 

 cowries spreads in two directions ; one to the regions 

 north of the ' Land of the Moon ' where they form the 

 currency, though they are also occasionally in demand as 

 an ornament in Unyamwesi ; C7 the other to the West 

 African coast. That the collecting of cowries on the East 

 African coast dates from ancient times is evident from 

 the list of articles of export at Rhapta in the first century 

 A.D. Among the articles mentioned in the " Periplus " 68 

 as exported from this place the Quiloa or Kilwa of 

 modern times is an item, NcifTrXfo? dX/yo? (lit. little sea- 

 shell), a term which has given rise to some discussion. 

 Vincent 89 says : " It seems to be an inferior tortoise-shell 

 from the context" (which he translates, "tortoise-shell of 

 superior kind, but not equal to the Indian ; and a small 



68 fount. Roy. Geog. Soc. Lond., vol. 29, 1859, p. 448. 



67 See Ratzel, op. cit., ii., plate facing p. 533, fig. I, for cowry orna- 

 mented head-dress of Wanyamwesi. 



68 Vincent, "The Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the 

 Indian Ocean," London, 1807, vol. ii., p. 172. 



69 Ibid., p. 748. 



