244 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[NO^-EMBER 1, 1899. 



was made from a reversed univalve shell {Fiiljur penerms), 

 allied to the Indian chank-shell ; and a third description 

 from a species of Olivella. Large and much valued 

 cylindrical beads (some of between two and three inches 

 in length, and of the shape of a cigar) were likewise cut 

 with great labour from the pink core, or columella, of the 

 queen conch [Stromlms ;/(V/(j«). Not only was wampum 

 employed as a means of exchange, but it was also worn as 

 a personal adornment ; while by a careful arrangement of 

 the beads according to size, shape, and colour, it also 

 served the purpose of an historical record, and to convey 

 messages. On the invasion of the east coast of America 

 (to which the use of wampum was restricted) by Europeans, 

 shell beads of various descriptions were soon introduced, 

 and the value of wampum discredited. 



In its monetary aspect, wampum naturally leads on to 

 the consideration of those shells employed as media of 

 exchange in their natural condition. In north-western 

 America such money took the form of a species of 

 Denfalinm, the hollow, tusk-like shells of which were 

 threaded on strings, whose value depended on the number 

 and condition of the specimens they bore. In certain 

 islands of the South Pacific a species of nerite served as 

 currency ; and in the New Hebrides, sandal-wood for the 

 China market was purchased with a species of egg-cowry 

 [Ovula anfjulosa). The shell which has long served in the 

 capacity of money throughout many countries is, however, 

 the well-known white money-cowry {Cypnea iiioncta) ; the 

 nearly allied ring-cowry [C. annuhis) being also employed 

 to a considerable extent. A native of the Pacific and 

 Eastern Seas, the money-cowry has from time immemorial 

 been employed as the lowest medium of exchange in India, 

 where even at the present day a few grains of parched 

 corn can be obtained in return for one of these shells. 

 But it is also very largely employed among the natives of 

 the west coast of Africa. To supply these districts, cowries 

 are imported from the East into Liverpool, whence they 

 are again shipped to their destination. Thirty years ago 

 the annual import of money-cowries into Lagos ranged 

 between fifty thousand and sixty-five* thousand hundred- 

 weights, but of late years the trade has fallen very greatly. 

 From the west coast, cowries penetrate far into the 

 interior of Africa, reaching even to the Sudan, where 

 they are employed to decorate the conical caps of the 

 inhabitants of the Bahr-el-Ghazal valley. On the west 

 coast their value ranges between ten and fifteen pence per 

 thousand. 



Allusion to necklaces of money-cowries has been already 

 made ; and it should be added that throughout India 

 these shells are largely employed to decorate the trappings 

 of horses, camels, elephants, etc., while they are worn on 

 the dress by Binjari women. In the British Army the 

 bridles of the Tenth Hussars are ornamented with money- 

 cowries. By the Dyaks a somewhat ghastly use is made of 

 these shells, who stick one in each eye-socket of the skulls 

 of their slain enemies. 



Returning for a moment to the use of shells as personal 

 ornaments, it may be mentioned that bracelets are occa- 

 sionally made from the prettily marked zigzag cowry 

 {Cyprwa unihtta), a number of which are mounted side by 

 side, with their long diameters parallel. The flattened 

 and circular spiral shells of the genus Botella are mounted 

 both as bracelets and as studs. Elegant bracelets are like- 

 wise made from the poUshed green opercula of certain 

 kinds of Turbo, small specimens of the same being 

 employed for studs. Bracelets and brooches made of 

 shell-cameos are noticed later. 



The most important industry connected with shells as 

 articles of personal adornment would seem to be the 



cutting of bangles from the chank-shell (Turbinella rapa), 

 which is carried on at Tuticorin. This shell, which is 

 sacred to Vishnu, and figures on the coins and postage- 

 stamps of Travancore, is a large and heavy spiral uni- 

 valve, with a long siphon and three bold ridges on the 

 core. When the epidermis is removed, the shell is white 

 and porcellanous. Occasionally reversed, or sinistral, 

 specimens are met, which are highly prized. One such 

 obtained in 1887 fetched 700 rupees ; and a second speci- 

 men has been subsequently dredged. The chief trade is 

 done in green, or living chanks, which are dredged in from 

 one to three fathoms of water off the coasts of Ceylon and 

 Southern India, the white, or dead chanks, cast on the shore 

 by the waves being of comparatively little value. Formerly 

 the export of chanks from Tuticorin to Madras and Calcutta 

 averaged something like half a million annually, with an 

 estimated value of from ten thousand pounds to fifteen 

 thousand pounds ; while a rent of four thousand pounds a 

 year was paid for the right of fishing in Ceylon. Of late 

 years, however, the trade has decreased, the number of 

 shells obtained during the winter of 1885-86 being three 

 hundred and thirty-two thousand, with a value of nearly 

 twenty-four thousand rupees. The great bulk of these 

 shells go to Dacca, where they are sliced into bangles and 

 anklets for Hindu women by means of a primitive saw 

 shaped somewhat Uke a cheese-cutter. Many of these 

 sankha, as they are called, are of a complex structure, 

 having a movable segment which can be fixed by means of 

 pins ; and they are frequently decorated with tinsel and 

 coloured glass. The practice of leaving the sankha on the 

 body during cremation renders the demand for these 

 articles constant. 



But it is not only as bracelets and anklets that chanks 

 are employed ; in the uncut condition they are mounted 

 in metal and bored to form trumpets, while they are also 

 sometimes used as oil- vessels in Hindu temples. In Dacca 

 they are also stated to be employed for glazing calico, 

 and in Nepal for polishing paper. Neither are bangles 

 cut from these shells alone, as they are made in Queens- 

 land from the pearl-oyster, and in the Marquesas from 

 the large top shell {Trochus niloticus), while mention 

 has already been made of those cut from a 'Turbo in 

 Papua. 



The employment of the valves of a large scallop [Pecten) 

 as a badge by pilgrims is famihar to all. In addition to 

 their use as personal ornaments and decoration to trappings, 

 shells are employed by aboriginal tribes for other decorative 

 purposes. In the Solomon Islands, for instance, canoes 

 are ornamented with rows of univalves of the genus Natica, 

 while cowries decorate the shields of the same people. 

 The large egg-cowry (Ovula ovum), in addition to its use as 

 a personal ornament, is attached to the drums of the 

 Papuans, and the eroded cowry (C. erosa) to thefr drinking 

 vessels. 



With the chief exceptions of wampum and the money- 

 cowry, the chief uses of shells noticed above have been aa 

 articles of luxury rather than of real use. In Fiji, however, 

 the Surinam-toad cowry [Cypnea mauritiana), together 

 with a large species of Turbo, is employed by the natives 

 for sinking their nets. A bisected tiger-cowry {C. tiyris), 

 enclosing a stone, and decorated with a pair of bright- 

 coloured olives (Oliva), is found to form an attractive bait 

 for cuttles in the same islands ; while in the Tonga group 

 a nearly similar bait is made by fastening several pieces 

 from the back of the same species of cowry around a core 

 of hard wood. In all the Pacific Islands, fish-hooks, which 

 in some cases appear to act also as artificial baits, are cut 

 from ear-shells (Haliotis), as well as from wing-mussels 

 {Avicula), additional strength being sometimes given by a 



