296 The Commercial Products of the Sea. 



striking and really elegant ornaments manufactured out of 

 shells by a half-civilized race, is a fillet formed of the nuclei 

 or inner whorl of the pearly nautilus, and worn on the head 

 by the Navigator's Islanders when going to war (4, Fig. 22). 

 Each nucleus is about an inch in diameter, the external 

 coat being removed, so as to exhibit an appearance of the 

 most highly burnished silver. The shells are fastened on a 

 mid-rib of cocoa-nut leaf, supported and tied round the 



FIG. 22. 



I. Money cowry; 2. Ovulum angulosum (sandal-wood shell) ; 3. Denta- 

 lium (money of West Coast Indians) ; 4. Fillet of nautilus shells (from 

 Samoa). 



head by a cord of sinnet. The pearly nautili are not found 

 at the Navigator's Islands, but are carried thither by 

 European traders from New Caledonia and Fiji, where 

 they are sold to the natives at the rate of about is. each. 

 Occasionally many tons of these shells are brought into the 

 Sydney market for reshipment to Samoa. The species 

 chiefly employed in this trade is the Nautilus macrocephalus. 



