Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ix. (1916), No. 4. 9 



interesting information relating to this species. He tells 

 us that Mrs. Hadfield came upon a rare treasure in the 

 shape of a fine Orange Cowry which according to the 

 native report had been found by an old woman who was 

 struck on the forehead by a demon, who asked her why 

 she took the shell. The woman, it is stated, died from 

 the effects of the blow. 14 



APPENDIX. 



Since this paper has been printed I have discovered 

 a most remarkable parallel in the use of the money cowry 

 in West Africa. In his description of the Human Leopard 

 Society of the Sierra Leone cannibals, 15 Major R. G. Berry, 

 A.S.C., gives detailed particulars of the contents of a 

 Borfimor, or medicine bag, used by Leopard-men in the 

 initiation of a person desirous of joining the society. 

 This Borfimor bag, now in his possession, figured pro- 

 minently in a trial which led to the hanging of thirty- 

 two men. On being opened it was found to contain 

 four smaller bags, one of which contained two tau-shaped 

 iron crosses, the stems of which were lapped with cotton, 

 and to the top of each was tied a cowry shell, or sign of 

 life. " The tau cross, or crux ansafa" Berry remarks, 

 " was the emblem of Osiris, and is called the Sign of Life, 

 the symbol of resuscitation and new birth, expressive 

 of the idea entertained by the Egyptians and other 

 philosophers, that nothing created was annihilated, and 



14 Melvill & Standen, op. cit., p. 131. 



15 R. G. Berry, "The Sierra Leone Cannibals, with Notes on their 

 History, Religion, and Customs." Proc. Roy. Irish Academy, Vol. xxx., 

 Sect. C, No. 2, May, 1912, pp. 45, 53, and 67. 



