158 Shells as evidence of tJie Migrations. 



Ewe that if a woman died in childbirth she was not given 

 the usual burial treatment, and was not buried in her hut. 

 The same shells are also employed as eyes in the Begbowo 

 idol, as an ornament of the fetish-priests and priestesses 

 at their dance, as offerings to the protective deity and at 

 ordeals, at which it depends upon whether the priest, who 

 has taken two or three cowries in the mouth, retains them 

 there or casts them out. 108 The similarity of these customs 

 to those current in other parts of the ^cvorld is remarkable. 

 As will be seen in the subsequent account ', t/ie association of 

 the cowry-shell with pregnancy is to be found in places so 

 far away as India and Japan ; while the spitting out of 

 cowries appears to be identical i.vit/i the medicine ceremonial 

 of the Ojibwa and Menomini Indians of North America. 



According to Klose, Togo warriors wear caps orna- 

 mented with cowries. As a protection from evil small 

 children have a pair of consecrated cowries interwoven in 

 the hair, while the women of the bush-people of the hinter- 

 land fasten cowries as a fetish on the side of the head. 

 Hunters, too, ornament therewith the butt-end of their 

 flint-lock guns, in order to ensure success, and on a much 

 honoured hunt-fetish in the neighbourhood of Soluga lay 

 buffalo- and antelope-horns adorned with cowries. At 

 the entrance to villages frequently stand clay-idols with 

 cowry-eyes and shell-ornament, and in front of them lay 

 abundant offerings of old spirit-flasks and calabashes 

 filled with cowries. At ordeals for the detection of a mur- 

 derer, the priests blow poison towards the sun out of a 

 cowry-decorated pipe, which, when the suspicion is correct, 

 falls down as blood, while at the trial of a thief two pieces of 

 wood, adorned with a cowry at each end and wrapped 

 round with a long cord, are made use of. 109 



108 Schneider, op. cit ., pp. 169-170 (quoting Mischlich and Spiess). 

 100 Schneider, op. cit., p. 170 (quoting Klose, "Togo."). 



