Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc 



IQI 



nately, neither the name of the tribes concerned, nor the 

 name of the shell employed, are given ; but the fact of 

 the latter being called a "porcelane" is not without 

 interest, as " porcelaine " is the common French term for 

 cowry. There is no certain evidence, however, to support 

 the conclusion that a cowry was the shell employed as a 

 war signal. Earlier in this Chapter we have seen that when 

 the Egbas of West Africa meditated war, cowries were 

 thrown into the air by the war-priest ; and in the Yoruba 

 country, where cowries are used for symbolic messages, 

 a solitary cowry indicates defiance. 



Oz'tifa (Calpttnnis) verrucosa L. 



'A. Philippines (after Reeve). 



B. Ancient American graves (after Holmes). 



Mr. W. H. Holmes, in his " Art in Shell of the Ancient 

 Americans," 1 " 4 illustrates in Plate xxxii. a number of 

 perforated marine shells exhumed from ancient graves of 

 North America. Two of these (Figs, n and 12) are of 

 special interest as coming within the scope of the present 

 discussion. Unfortunately the precise data regarding 

 the site of their discovery are not given ; all we are told is 



104 Second Annual Repoit, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1883, 

 PP. * 79- 305- 



