20 JACKSON, Use of Coivry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 



helmet enclosing the head and hanging down the back of 

 the neck " (see also Ratzel, op. cit., i., p. 101). Among the 

 Latukas and their kinsfolk heavy wicker helmets, with 

 crests recalling Greek forms, are used ; these are orna- 

 mented with a ring of cowries all round (Ratzel, III., 

 p. 30, and p. 41, fig. 7). Among the Djibba tribe of the 

 Sobat country, one of the Nile tributaries, cowries appear 

 to be associated with head-hunting, as among the Nagas of 

 Assam (infra, p. 50^. Like these latter people, the Djibba 

 warriors wear the hair taken from the decapitated heads of 

 slain enemies, in addition to wearing goat-skin dresses, 

 ivory armlets and belts of cozvries. ei By the furs, beads and 

 coivry-shells are considered as essential at betrothals^' 



In East Africa rubbed-down cowries 63 are used largely 

 by the Akikuyu, Kavirondo, Akamba and Masai peoples. 

 Kavirondo men are noted for their peculiar and elaborate 

 head-dresses made of these shells. Among the Akamba, 

 Masai and other tribes, cowries appear to be associated 

 with unmarried girls (as among the Chettis of Southern 

 India, infra p. 48). The young unmarried girls of the 

 Akamba tribe wear belts and aprons adorned with beads 

 and cowries ; but these ornaments are discarded after the 

 birth of the first child. The Masai women also wear a 

 peculiar head-band covered with cowries during the 

 period of "engagement.'' 64 The Lumbwa girls' aprons, too, 

 are similarly adorned, doubtless with the same sig- 

 nificance. 65 Ridgeway, in his paper on " The Origin of 



01 Brown, "Races of Mankind," III., p. 16. 



c - Schneider, op. cil., p. 173. 



65 On the East side of Africa, the ring-cowry (C annnlus) appears to 

 be the form universally used. 



64 "Women of all Nations," pp. 266 and 268. 



65 Specimens in the Manchester Museum; see also Journ. Anthrop. 

 Inst., vol. 33 (1903), pi. xxix., for illustration of a Lumbwa girl wearing one 

 of these cowry-ornamented aprons. 



