1/2 Shells (is evidence of the Migrations. 



In Thibet, according to Carl Ritter, cowries serve as 

 ornaments for women's girdles. 14 " 



Among the Khasias, a stone-using tribe inhabiting the 

 Khasia Hills of Eastern Bengal, cowries are associated with 

 marriage. According to Brown, 146 " the marriage ceremony 

 is of the most primitive type. All that is necessary is for 

 the couple to sit together on one seat and receive their 

 friends, to whom they give a marriage feast. A union so 

 easily contracted is just as easily dissolved. The woman 

 receives five cowries which she throws away ; they are 

 then free to be married again, the children remaining with 

 the mother." 



Among the Nagas of Assam, head-hunting was 

 formerly a qualification for matrimony, and a warrior, 

 having slain an enemy, had the privilege of wearing a kilt 

 decorated with cowry-shells, collars ornamented with 

 similar shells, tufts of goat hair dyed red, and locks of 

 hair from the heads of the persons killed. 147 



A similar custom is prevalent among the head-hunt- 

 ing Patasiwa of Seran, where a warrior is not allowed to 

 take a wife until he can show the head of an enemy he has 

 slain. In proof of his prowess the warrior wears as many 

 little white shells (? cowries) round his neck and arms as 

 he has murdered men. 148 An even more striking identity 

 in the association of cowries with head-hunting is to be 

 found in East Central Africa, where the Djibba tribe wear 

 not only the cowries but also the hair from the heads of 

 the slain enemies (see p. 142). 



145 Schneider, op. '/., p. 117. 



146 Brown, of>. cit., iii., p. 302; quoting Lieut. Steel, K.A., Joui. 

 Ethtiol. Sac., vii., p. 305. By some philologists the Khasias are considered 

 to he Thibetans. 



147 " Women of all Nations," p. 581. 



14S G. A. Cooke, "System of Universal Geography,'' vol. i. (1801), p. 

 609. 



