r 



Use of Cavry-sliells for Citrrenc\\ Aiiiu/i'ts, r/r. i 



49 



articles as they obtain in this way, and do not themselves 

 need, they trade away to the sonth and east. On another 

 pat^e (p. 553) of the same volume, he t^ives an illustration 

 (after Serpa Pinto) of Kimbande-Ganouellas with cowry- 

 ornament. It is of interest to note that the shells {C.iiu})iehi 

 or anHiili(s), are emplo)-ed by the women and c^irls as a 

 decoration in connection with their curious method of 

 hair-dressing ; the man shown in the illustration has no 

 such ornament. According to the observation of W'aitz, 

 cowries were usual as ornament among Hottentots and 

 Kaffirs."'' Unfortunately no indication is given as to 

 whether these were the small white money cowries, or 

 some other. From Ratzel's figure (ii., p. 26S) of a 

 Bushman amulet, consisting of large cowries attached to 

 a sort of belt, it would appear that cowries other than 

 those so universally employed for currency are used also 

 in the south. It is impossible to define the species from 

 the illustration, but it appears to be a large spotted one, 

 probabh' C. //i^r/s, whose nearest habitat is off the h'ast 

 African coast, in the neighbourhood of Zanzibar. 



Returning north, to the French Congo, we find that, 

 according to Foret'"' the races on the Tem and on the 

 Ivindo use cowries as ornaments. Lenz, in 1876, found 

 them so emplo\'ed in the hinterland of Gaboon. Kund 

 also reports cowry-ornaments for the neck among the 

 Bateke, not far from Leopoldville. Dennett" figures a 

 Bavili "guardian fetish," called Mpembe, consisting of a 

 wooden image in the shape of a man, the eyes of which 

 are cowry-shells with the apertures outwards. Katzel 



" ' Schneider, <?/>. (//., p. 172: Arcording to I'erinjjuey (.•///;/. .V. .-Ifr. 

 jVies.,\\n, 1911, p. 104), Sparrman mentit>ns and figures lIoUentMl oina- 

 ments of marine .sliells {Ncrita albidlla ?) and a leather head-dress adorned 

 with three spaced rows of " cowries." 



■'" Le Mouvement Geographic|ue, 1902, Xo. 9 {fide .Schneider). 



'■" R. E. Dennett, "At the IJack of liic Black .Man's .Mind," London, 

 1906, p. 91. pi. 5. 



