Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 157 



worth 3d. In Okwaon, on the contrary, they were 

 reckoned thus : 



35 cowries = i string (Obang). 

 12x35 therefore 12 strings = 3d. 

 50x35 50 (1/50 cowries) = I Head 



(Atramatiri). 



In the plural, Atiri, was used for 2-9, and Atramatiri, 

 for 10 or more heads. A game with cowries (obviously 

 the same game as elsewhere in this region) was named 

 Atramaton, i.e. to throw cowries. These words are com- 

 binations with the word Atrama, which denotes cowries. 

 " They were so named," says Perregaux, " in the Tshi 

 language in Aquapim and Ashanti, while in Okwaon and 

 the northern lands the designation Serewa was used. A 

 single cowry was called Niwa, because of its likeness to an 

 eye 10 '' (Oniwa), and ten cowries were called Niwandu." 10 " 



Among the Mamprusi of the Gambaga country, north 

 of Ashanti, cowries, together with kola nut, figure among 

 the objects distributed to guests and musicians at wedding 

 ceremonies." 7 



Apart from their use as currency, cowries play a very 

 important role as amulets and in fetish-worship among 

 the Ewe negroes of Togo district. They are worn on 

 the neck, arm, wrist and ankle, and regarded as amulets 

 against wounds and sickness, and for luck in hunting. 

 Mischlich records that the hunt-fetishes, Gbofu of Dad- 

 ease and Nakuku of Mjooti, both in Adeli, a district in the 

 hill-country of Togo, were ornamented with cowries. Spiess 

 mentions that they were worn in quantity by expectant 

 women, to ward off danger. It was the custom among the 



105 The likeness of the aperture of the cowry to the closed eye may 

 explain why these shells have been applied as eyes for fetishes, etc., in the 

 Congo region, Borneo, New Zealand, etc. 



1 '" 1 fide Schneider, op. <//., pp. 144-5. 



iur " Women of all Nations,'" p. 344. 



