Use of Coivry-shclls for Cnnotcw . I'milcls, cd: 173 



Among the Dyaks of l^oinco it is the custom to place 

 the small white monej'-cowiies in the eye sockets of the 

 skulls of enemies, which they kecp.'^" The baskets of the 

 Dyak head-hunter are also decorated with the same 

 cowries.'"' Specimens in the Leiden Museum show t. 

 anniilns as decoration '{(^x sword-hangings from West 

 Borneo, and C. })io)u-ta as decoration for a betel-pouch 

 from South-east l^orneo.'"' 



In certain parts of Malaysia, cowries are attached to 

 the fishing-nets, not as "net-sinkers" as recorded by 

 several ethnologists,'"'- but in order to ensure success in 

 fishing or to ward off evil influences. In Nias, an island 

 off the west coast of Sumatra, Cypnea vitellus is so used ; 

 in Engano, an island in the same neighbourhood, the 

 species is C. veiitriciilus ; in Timor, C. ayabica ; while off 

 N.W. New Guinea the shells employed are C. motieta, 

 C. caput-serpen f is, C. erosa, C. lynx, C. tign's and C. vitellnsy'' 



According to Von Martens, the Berlin Museum con- 

 tains specimens of clothing ornamented with cowries, from 

 Bali, near Java.^'^ In Timorlaut the natives adorn cloth- 

 girdles with cowries, and in the same island, four species 

 of cowries. C. annnlus, C. Isabella, C. erosa, and C. helvola, 

 are employed as neck-ornaments.'"'"' 



Van der Sande,'"'" describes and figures several neck- 

 ornaments from Dutch New Guinea, on which specimens 



'^■' Slearns, (7/. cil., p. j02 ; Kal/.el, op. cil., i.. p. 135 (lig.). 



'"" Ratzel, op. a/., vol. i., p. 44S (fig.) 



'"' .Schnieltz, " Scliiieckcii und .Musclieln in Iclien <lcr v.ilkcr Ind(v 

 nesiens und Oceaniens," Leiden, 1894. 



'*- Tlie sliglil weighl of these shells would reiKlcr them valueless as 

 sinkeis. 



■*' SchmeUz, op. al. 



'*■* Schneider, op. cil., p. iiS. 



'"■"• I hid., and SchmeUz, op. cil. 



"•'" \an der Sande, " Nova Guinea," iii , 1907, PP- ^J, i'7 S, pi. xiii.. 

 fig. 4. 



