42 JACKSON, Use of Cowry-shells for Currency^ Amulets, etc. 



great figure of Olukun himself sits a priest, half hidden 

 by long strings of cowries hung from the roof. At I go, a 

 town on the Gilly Gilly road, there is a mound on which 

 is an altar to Olukun with chalk cones and cowries on it, 

 all covered by a shed. The presence of an Odigi, or 

 sacred well, is generally made known along the roads 

 by a tree and a mound of earth and cowries. 121 The 

 shells are also scattered at certain death ceremonies. 122 

 Their association with marriage is seen by the fact that 

 among the upper class cowries, together with kola-nuts 

 and palm-wine, are given as presents on betrothal. 

 " Often on the roads one passes a small tree planted by 

 the side of the road, near which are chalk marks and a 

 mound of earth, cowries, yams and plantains. This tree 

 has been planted in memory of the fact that some woman 

 or other has brought forth a child on that spot.'' 123 



On the Bonny river, at Ibo on the Niger, and in other 

 places of the Niger-delta, cowries have, or had until quite 

 recently, general currency. In this neighbourhood also it 

 is the custom, at the interment of a chief, to bury all his 

 treasure with him in the grave. The brothers Lander 

 narrate that when they visited Idda, on the left bank of 

 the Niger, much consternation and indignation prevailed, 

 owing to the fact that the new chief had again exhumed 

 and misappropriated for his own use the treasure of 

 cowries which had been buried with his father. 1 ' 4 



\\\ India the money-cowry seems to have been 

 regarded with special favour for amuletic and currency 

 purposes from very early times. It has been met with 

 on several pre-historic sites accompanied with bangles 

 made from the sacred chank shell, Turbiuella pyrum, and 



121 Ibid., pp. 222-4, and 227. 



122 Ibid., p. 207. 



1 '-'•'' Ibid., pp. 198-9. 



124 Schneider, op. til., pp. 156-7. 



