304 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



ACHATINA MONETARIA, ETC. 



The shell of the land-snail, Achatina monetaria, cut into circles, with 

 an open center, is the monetary sign employed in commerce and in 

 payment of a part of tribute in Benguella.* 



Another ludo-Pacific species, Nerita polita, described by Linnaeus, a 

 very abundant form in the general region of the Viti or Fiji Islands and 

 the Navigator or Samoan group, and at certain localities in the Aus- 

 tralasian seas, sometimes (once in a thousand) exhibits a banded or 

 striped variety ; this, it is said, passes as money and is used in trade. 



DIWARA, TAMBU, LIDERAN, AND PELE. 



In the islands of New Britain and New Ireland and those of theDuke 

 of York group, situated about 10° south latitude and 150° west longi- 

 tude, shell money is used by the natives. The name of this money in 

 the Duke of York group and New Ireland is Diwara. In New Britain 

 it is called Tambu. There are other kinds of money in the group made 

 of shells broken into flakes and ground down to a circular form; this is 

 called Lideran. In New Ireland 1 fathom of Lideran will purchase more 

 than one fathom of Diwara. Still another kind of money is made at a 

 place called Mioko, in theDuke of York group ; the name of this last is 

 Tele. Some forms of this native money are exceedingly special and re- 

 stricted as a tender, being used only in the purchase of swine. The 

 author* does not give the names of the species or genera of shells from 

 which the money he refers to is made, but some forms of it, impliedly, 

 are made from bivalves and others from gasteropod shells. 



It is noteworthy that some of it is in the disk form, in this respect 

 like the hawoclc and tocalli of the California aborigines. 



WAMPUM AND SHELL MONEY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 



The early settlers of New England found a form of shell money in use 

 amongthe aborigines of that region. In the Historical Collections of Mas- 

 sachusetts, and from other sources, as recorded by Governor Winthrop 

 and Roger Williams, we are informed as to its character and the purposes 

 for which it was used. This shell money, to which the Indian nstmeWam- 

 pum was given, consisted of beads made from certain species of shells, and 

 unlike the cowry money of India and Africa, before described, required a 

 considerable degree of manipulation in its manufacture. The cowry 

 money, it will be borne in mind, was used in the natural state, except 

 when strung, and to prepare it for stringing only a simple perforation 

 was necessary. The wampum or shell-bead money of the New England 

 Indians involved much labor and no small degree of skill. It consisted 

 of two principal colors of beads, of cylindrical form, a quarter of an inch, 

 more or less, in length, the diameter or thickness being usually about 



* Tryon's Conchology, vol. I, p. 149. 



t Rev. B. Danks, iu Jour. Anthrop. Inst., May, 1888. 



