Use of Cowry- shells for Currency, Annilets, etc. 193 



not seem to have been usual in shells other than cowries, 

 either in America or anywhere else. 



It is remarkable that after so many years, and with 

 the yearly increase of knowledge, the two shells figured 

 by Holmes should have remained undetermined. They 

 are reproduced along with the other shells of Holmes' 

 plate by H. Beuchat, on page 145 of his "Manuel 

 d'Archeologie Americaine" (Paris, 1912), but no further 

 details are added. 



Regarding the use of cowries in Southern California, 

 Frederick W. Putnam 197 gives some interesting particulars, 

 though these are somewhat lacking in detail. He writes 

 (p. 252): "The fact that the Indians of California, in 

 common with savages generally, often decorated their 

 implements and utensils with the same materials which 

 they employed for personal ornament, is proved by articles 

 collected from the graves ; as, for instance, the decoration 

 of the rims of the large stone mortars, on which, held in 

 place by asphaltum, are pieces of the pearly shell of 

 Haliotis, or sometimes, the perfect shells of two or three 

 beautiful species of Cyprcea ; C. spadicea particularly being 

 employed on the mainland. Another method of ornament- 

 ing the rims of these mortars consisted in cutting away the 

 dorsal portion of the shells of Cypraa and fastening them 

 to the mortar, by their cut surface, with asphaltum, so as 

 to exhibit the lips of the shell, with their serrated edges." 

 Such a cut shell is represented by Putnam in Plate xiii., 

 Fig. 52, of his work, but no specific name is given. Its 

 contour is totally unlike that of C. spadicea, or any other 

 American cowry. My colleague, Mr. R. Standen, and I 

 have carefully compared the illustration with various 

 cowries, and the only shell the features of which appear 



lar j n Report U.S. Geog. Surv. west of looth meridian, vol. vii. 

 Archceology," Washington, 1879. 



