6 JACKSON, Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, A mulets, etc. 



be seen by the footnotes. Much further information, how- 

 ever, not noted by Schneider, is embodied here, more 

 especially with regard to the use of cowries in Ancient 

 Egypt, Eastern Asia, North America, and many other 

 places. 



Cowries appear to have been appreciated and used as 

 amulets at a very early period in Egypt. Both Cyprcea 

 moneta and Cyprcea annulus — the forms so universally 

 used for currency — have been discovered, along with other 

 cowries, in Pre-dynastic burials, and both forms have been 

 found repeatedly in later graves in Egypt -and Nubia. 

 According to Lortet and Gaillard, 7 the following species 

 of cowries have been found at Karnak : Cyprcea vitellus, 

 C tigris, C pantherina, C. camelopardalis ( = melanostoma), 

 C arabica, and var. histrio, Cerytlirceensis, C caput-serpentis y 

 C moneta and C. annulus — all species which occur to-day 

 in the Red Sea. The larger forms are perforated near 

 one end as if for use as pendants. The examples of 

 C. moneta and C annulus are of peculiar interest from the 

 fact that they have been rubbed down on the back or 

 convex side — a custom which is still in vogue among the 

 East African people to-day. Of further interest is the 

 figure given by the same authors of a reproduction in 

 diorite of a Cyprcea moneta. This object, which is per- 

 forated for suspension, was found in the necropolis of 

 Rizakat, near Gebelen, Upper Egypt. In a tomb (D 114) 

 at Abydos, of xviiith dynasty date, large numbers of 

 Cypr&a annulus were discovered, all of them having been 

 rubbed down on the back, as at Karnak. s The same 



7 Lortet & Gaillard, "La Faune Momifiee de l'ancienne Egypre : 

 Mollusques," Arch. Mas. cfHist. Nat. de Lyon, vol. 10, Lyon, 1909, pp. 

 108-m; see also List of Species, pp. 310-311. 



8 T. E. Peet & \V. L. S. Loat, " The Cemeteries of Abydos," pt. III. 

 1912-1913, 35th Mem. Egypt. Explorl Fund, 1913, p. 30, pi. xii., figs. 6 & 9. 

 (The Series is now in the Manchester Museum). 



