Use of Cowry -she I Is for Currency, Amulets, etc. 173 



Among the Dyaks of Borneo it is the custom to place 

 the small white money-cowries in the eye-sockets of the 

 skulls of enemies, which they keep. 149 The baskets of the 

 Dyak head-hunter are also decorated with the same 

 cowries. 150 Specimens in the Leiden Museum show C. 

 ammlus as decoration for sword-hangings from West 

 Borneo, and C. moneta as decoration for a betel-pouch 

 from South-east Borneo. 151 



In certain parts of Malaysia, cowries are attached to 

 the fishing-nets, not as " net-sinkers " as recorded by 

 several ethnologists, 15 ' but in order to ensure success in 

 fishing or to ward off evil influences. In Nias, an island 

 off the west coast of Sumatra, Cyprcea vitellus is so used ; 

 in Engano, an island in the same neighbourhood, the 

 species is C. ventriculus ; in Timor, C. arabica ; while off 

 N.W. New Guinea the shells employed are C. moneta, 

 C. caput-serpentis, C. erosa, C. lyn.r, C. tigris and C. vitellus 



According to Von Martens, the Berlin Museum con- 

 tains specimens of clothing ornamented with cowries, from 

 Bali, near Java. 154 In Timorlaut the natives" adorn cloth- 

 girdles with cowries, and in the same island, four species 

 of cowries, C. annulus, C. isabella, C. erosa, and C. Jielvola, 

 are employed as neck-ornaments. 155 



Van der Sande, 156 describes and figures several neck- 

 ornaments from Dutch New Guinea, on which specimens 



140 Stearns, op. cit., p. 302 ; Ratzel, of. cit., i., p. 135 (fig.). 



150 Ratzel, op. cit., vol. i., p. 448 (fig.) 



151 Schmeltz, " Schnecken und Muscheln in leben der volker Indo- 

 nesians und Oceanians," Leiden, 1894. 



162 The slight weight of these shells would render them valueless as 

 sinkers. 



163 Schmeltz, op. cit. 



154 Schneider, op. cit., p. 118. 



155 Ibid.) and Schmeltz, op. cil. 



i5o y an der S an de, "Nova Guinea," iii , 1907, pp. 83, 117-8, pi. xiii., 

 fig. 4. 



