VI PREFACE. 



sacred, and used only by the high-priests. The 

 highest order of dignity, among the Friendly 

 Islands, is the permission to wear the Cypraea Au- 

 rantium, or orange cowry. And Lister relates, 

 that the inhabitants of the province of Nicaragua 

 fasten the Ostreavirginicatoa handle of wood, and 

 use it as aspade to dig up the ground. As matter of 

 traffic they bear a nominal value and appreciation, 

 proportionate to their supposed scarcity or beauty. 

 Rumphius is said to have given nearly a thousand 

 pounds for one of the first discovered specimens of 

 the Venus Dione. The Conus Cedonulli, so very 

 rarely offered for sale, is valued at three hundred 

 guineas. The Turbo Scalaris, if large and perfect, 

 is worth a hundred guineas : the Cypraea Auranti- 

 um, without a hole beaten through it, is worth 

 fifty : and it has been calculated, that a complete 

 collection of the British Conchology is worth its 

 weight in pure silver. In an economical and po- 

 litical view, they are of no inconsiderable import. 

 Pearls, the diseased excrescences of mussels and 

 oysters, form a portion of the revenues of these and 

 some other kingdoms; and constitute, with jewels, 

 the rich and costly ornaments, by which the high 

 and wealthy ranks of polished society are distin- 

 guished. The Cypraea Moneta, or money cowry, 

 forms the current coin of many nations of India 

 and Africa; and this covering or coat of an incon- 

 siderable worm, stands at this day as the medium 

 of barter for the liberty of man ; a certain weight 

 of them being given in exchange for a slave. The 

 scholar needs not the reminiscence, that the 

 suffrages of the ancient Athenians were delivered 



in 



