2 JACKSON, Money Cowry as a Sacred Object. 



form of shell-money, has had so extended a use as the 

 money cowry, C. moneta. It is in use as money in India 

 and many parts of Africa. In India about 4,000 pass for 

 a shilling. The use of the cowry for money in India has 

 a very considerable antiquity. In Bengal the principal 

 money finds, belonging to the period prior to Alexander 

 the Great, have been cowries, the metallic moneys being 

 comparatively few. 3 



In the Sudan, so far as the people trade, they have 

 no other currency than the cowry, of which 2,000 shells, 

 weighing seven pounds, are worth a dollar. 



According to Pickering, 4 this species was formerly 

 used as money in the Sandwich Islands. 



Del Mar {pp. cit., p. 19) also speaks of the uss of 

 cowries as money in China in ancient times, and further 

 remarks (p. 147) on the use of cowries for money in trade 

 carried on between India and Egypt, and China and 

 Egypt, at a very remote period. 



Thus a series of cultural links are established by this 

 cowry-currency which can be joined up to form a com- 

 plete chain from the Sudan to America. 



As an ornament, the money cowry has been used in 

 many ways. The Dyaks stick the small white shells in 

 the eye sockets of the skulls of their enemies, which they 

 keep. In India these shells are much used to ornament 

 the trappings of horses and elephants. They are also 

 strung like beads or sewed like buttons on their dress by 

 Brinjari women as personal ornaments. 5 



In Africa it is used to a considerable extent for deco- 

 rative purposes. 



Cypraa moneta has been met with in several pre- 



3 A. del Mar, " Hist, of Money," 18S5. 



4 '• Races of Man,'' Bonn's ed., 1863. 



5 Stearns. Kept. U.S. Nat. Mus., 1887 (1889), pt. ii. 



