I 



Cse of Cowrr-s/iei/s for Ciinciin\ Amu/tis, rtc. I S7 



before their makers had any intercourse with white per- 

 sons. The presence of the cowries, therefore, is of s[)erial 

 interest. 



The shells were sent hy the discoverer to Dr. W. II. 



]3all, another of America's leading; concholo^ists. and the 



following extraordinary statement was received in reply : — 



" 1 should incline to the belief that the cowries were 



imported in or about the time of Cohmibus' voyac;es. 



Bound, as they supposed, for the Indies, where the 



cowry was formerly flikc our \\am])um a stai)lc 



article of barter, the exploring vessels would undoubt- 



edl}' have carried cowries as well as the other articles 



of trade we know they carried. It would not have 



taken them \<•>\^g to find out that cowries did not pass 



as currenc}- with American natives, and reporting tin's 



on their return to Spain later traders wouhl not have 



carried them for barter. The necklace or bracelet 



you obtained may have passed from hand to hand as 



a curiosity (as I have known such things to do) until 



it reached a people who knew nothing of the whites 



'till much later. In fact }-our cowries ma_\- ha\e come 



off one of Columbus' own vessels ! " 



But an even more remarkable story is that given in 



"Harper's Monthly Magazine" for September (191''', 



p. 599j, by Mr. II. Xewell Wardle, of the I'hiladelphia 



Academy of Natural Science, as follows : — 



"The great Genoese, starting in 149J <>ii his first 

 voyage to discover a new route to the kingdom of the 

 Great Khan, doubtless stocked his ships with a goodly 

 store of these ivory-white [)orcelain shells. I le hatl 

 been in Guinea. He knew the requirements of the 

 Gold Coast trade .... I'robably, though he fails to 

 mention it, cowries, strung as for the (iuinea trade, 

 were part of his stock — an ill-venture, in competition' 



