254 Natural Histm-y of Molluscous Animals : — 



illustrious naturalist with a premium of 1800 dollars (about 

 450/.), which in that country must have been a very consider- 

 able sum. * 



Pearls are the toys of civilised nations, while shells them- 

 selves become the pride and ornament of savage tribes ; for 

 it is in poetry only that we find damsels who think themselves 



" when unadorn'd 



Adom'd the most." 



A negro Venus with a large cowry (Cypr«^'a) for an ear- 

 pendant, another for a nose-jewel, and a string of volutes for 

 a necklace, may, in the opinion of your fair lady, have a very 

 ridiculous and childish taste, but, in reality, the one values 

 her pretty shells as highly as the other doth her pearls. And 

 this is no idle supposition : for I remember that Sir J. Banks 

 could not, by any present, induce an Otaheitan girl to part 

 with her native ornaments; and some tribes so curiously 

 and neatly form their shells into festoons and bracelets, and 

 wear them so gracefully, that even European travellers have 

 expressed admiration of them. Some years ago I saw, in the 

 museum of Mr. Bullock, a very magnificent piece of dress of 

 this kind. It was the chief mourner's dress of ceremony at 

 the funerals of Otaheite. The part worn over the face was 

 made of large plates of mother of pearl shell fastened together 

 with fibres of the cocoa nut; and the elaborate drapery 

 stretched across the breast was composed of several thousands 

 of pieces of mother of pearl, each separately drilled and fast- 

 ened together in a manner that would be found difficult for a 

 European artist to copy, with the advantage of iron tools, 

 which were then totally unknown to these interesting islanders. 

 To many people shells serve many purposes more useful 

 than that of ornament. You must have read that in India, 

 and among the various nations in Africa, a species of cowry 

 {QyprcE^a moneta) is the current coin; and in the Travels of 

 Park you may see a table of their comparative value. The 

 Iroquois, and other North American tribes, make their "wam- 

 pum^ which serves the purpose of records, from portions of 

 perlaceous bivalve shells ; and they seem to have another sort 

 of wampum made with a species of Cassis Lamarck, which 

 they string into a belt, and, according to Mackenzie, invari- 



* The above account of pearls and of the pearl fishery has been drawn 

 up from the following works : — Plinii Hist. N'at., lib. ix. ; Adams's Roman 

 Antiquities ; Pennant's Brit. Zoology^ vol. iv. p. 1G3. ; Humboldt's Personal 

 Narrative^ vol. ii. ; Bruce's Travels in Abyssinia, vol. ii. p. 246 — 249., &c. j 

 Percival's Ceylon ; Pulteney's Life of LinncBus, by Dr. Maton, p. 92, 93. 

 and 550. 



