THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



163 



How Savages Use The Sea Shells. 



1>V C'UAIJLES PIkDLKV, 



TO the wild man slu'lls and shellfish 

 were much more valuahle than these 

 are to ourselves. In the ages be- 

 fore metals were found, primitive man 

 easily fashioned many useful articles 

 from shells, and without exerting 

 strength or skill he gathered plenty of 

 wholesome food from cockles, mussels, 

 oysters, whelks and limpets. 



If a civilised man were so unlucky as 

 to be wrecked on a desert island, V)eing 

 thrown on his own resources and living 

 again the simple life of a savage, he 

 would quickly realise in how many ways 

 he could use his shells. Among the re- 

 mote islands of the Pacific sea shells are 

 still used not only for ornaments, but 

 for tools, for pots and pans, and many 

 other things. In the galleries of the 

 Australian Museum are many examples 

 of such work, the story of which we will 

 now proceed to tell. 



In the good old days tlie native beach- 

 comber did very well without the trader's 

 store. For the kindly sea gods who 

 managed his fish supply, who brought 

 him the dugong, who guided his turtle 

 to the sand bank where it laid its eggs, 

 also threw upon the beach the material 

 for cups, plates, knives, and all that 

 was needful for his table-ware. 



Among such gifts were the giant clam, 

 the great whelk, the helmet shell, and 

 the pearl oyster. One of the most use- 

 ful of these is the melon shell {Cym- 

 hium flammeum). Melon shells have 

 been known to reach a length of eigh- 

 teen inches and a breadth of twelve 

 inches, their backs are as round and 

 smooth as the water-melon from which 

 they take their name, and they are 

 tastefully painted in cream and brown 

 and crowned with a spiral of thorns. 

 The melon shell is at home in the little 

 pools floored with sand that lie among 

 the coral reefs, and, crawling lazily 

 through the wet sand, is the large tough 

 black slug that owns and builds it. In 

 the simple life nothing edible is wasted, 

 so the black slug is wrapped in banana 



Bailer formed from a Melon Shell (Cymbium 



flammium). The central twisted axis gives a 



grip for the sailor's hand. 



Del. — Miss P. F. Clarke. 



leaves and baked with hot stones for the 

 family breakfast. When rid of its ten- 

 ant the shell comes into service. In 

 Torres Strait, the islanders, who call it 

 "alup," used it for boiling meat and 

 vegetables. By cutting in it a hand grip 

 they formed it into a bailer; east and 

 west for a thousand miles this melon 

 shell serves the canoe men to bail the 

 water from a leaking craft. The Papuan 

 warrior cut a plate from the melon 

 shell and used it for armour to protect 

 a vulnerable part from his enemy's 

 spear thrust. The womerah of the Cape 

 York Peninsula may be distinguished 

 from every other kind of spear-thrower 

 b.y the double slip of melon shell at the 

 handle. In fact the melon shell was the 

 handiest thing from which to carve a 

 dish or a spoon or anything else" in the 

 crockery line. 



