8 JACKSON, Money Cowry as a Sacred Object. 



expiration of air from the lungs, and this was considered 

 a favourable omen, and the tribe prepared for the expe- 

 dition, confident of success. If, on the contrary, the shell 

 obstinately remained silent, the result of the expedition 

 was regarded as doubtful. 



This reverence paid to shells by the Indians of North 

 America has many parallels in the Old World. In West 

 Africa the natives in the Yoruba country have a cowry 

 shell house for a cowry shell god, the whole being entirely 

 made up of the money cowry. 



The natives of Usambara, in East Africa, also attach 

 marvellous powers to a species of Achatina, imagining 

 that it can ward off all forms of evil and witchcraft. The 

 shell is held in high repute and placed in little enclosures 

 of stone in their fields, and at the gateways of their 

 villages, which are thus considered safe from the attacks 

 of the enemy or from disease. 11 The name of the species 

 is not given, but it may possibly be the Achatina bloyeti 

 var. fatalis, a species which plays a part in the trials by 

 ordeal of the Wadshagga peoples, the accused whose guilt 

 or innocence is to be proved being compelled to take the 

 poison from it. 12 



In Asia we have the well-known chank-cult which is 

 current in India, Thibet, and China. 



In Polynesia one of the most interesting examples is 

 that recorded by the Rev. Mr. Hadfield, who came across 

 a fine specimen of the Orange Cowry {Cyprcea aurora) in 

 a native hut in Lifu, Loyalty Is., where it was held 

 in much veneration by the occupant, who considered it a 

 kind of fetish. 1 ' Mr. Hadfield also gives some further 



1 1 K. Johnston, " Notes on the Geology of Usambara," 1879, as quoted 

 by Lovell "Edible British Mollusca," 1884, p. 198. 



12 Tryon's "Manual of Conchology," 2nd Ser., xvii.. 1904, p. 37. 



1 3 See Melvill & Standen, "Lifu Mollusca," Journal of Conchology, 

 viii., 1S95, p. 1 12, 



