I)itroihictic7i. xxi 



their ships and converting them into living beings. They 

 painted representations of C}-es upon the bows of tlieir 

 sliips so that, as h"ving things, thc\- might be able to sec 

 their \va\-. It is [)ossible that the ship-builders of the 

 Arabian littoral, the Far East, and Oceania, ma}' have 

 had in mind this double association (as an animating 

 power and as eyes) when the\' adopted the custom of 

 attaching cowries, or other shells, to the bows of their 

 ships. 



Although Egypt has provided almost the earliest 

 evidence'" of the cultural use C)f the money-cowry, shells 

 never plaj'ed anj^ prominent part in the lower Nile Yalle}'. 

 It is worth\- of note, however, that the earliest gold 

 jewelry,'" included a necklace of gold inodels of snail- 

 shells. 



So far as the evidence at present available justifies ' 

 the expression of an opinion, it seems probable Uiat the 

 Red Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean constitute the 

 original home of the world-wide cult of shells. The former 

 probabl)' supplied the cowries and pearls and the latter 

 the invention of the shell-trumpet and the purple d\e. 

 Kut there are reasons for supposing that these varied uses 

 of shells were intimately related geneticall}- the one with 

 the other. The sanctity of the trumpet was [irobabl)' 

 derived in some measure from the beliefs that had grown 

 up around the cowry. The preparation of trumpets for 

 temple service may have played some part in the discoverv 

 of the purple dye, for one of the purple shells is a bmcinuiii. 

 The association of the shells which produce pearls and 



' - The earliest cases of the use of tlie cowry may be those found in 

 the graves at La .Madelaine, Laut^erie-Basse and Mentone. Kut I have 

 suggested that although these graves nre usually called " pa];eolithic " they 

 may not he any older than I'redynastic Egyptian graves. (See pp. 134-138). 



^^ G. A. Reisner, " Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-edDer," Vol. 

 I., 1908, Plates 6 and 7. 



