54 JACKSON, Use of Cowry -she lis for Currency, Amulets, etc. 



voyage, figures an instrument of palm-wood, used for 

 splitting bread-fruit in this island, to which are attached 

 two tiger cowries with their inner whorls broken out, and 

 one end cut off. 164 



In the Loyalty Islands, the orange cowry (Cyprcea 

 aurora) is greatly appreciated. The Rev. Mr. Hadfield, 

 in the course of his missionary work, came across a fine 

 specimen in a native hut in Lifu, where it was held in 

 much veneration by the occupant, who considered it a 

 kind of fetish. 165 Mr. Hadfield also gives us some further 

 interesting information regarding this species. He tells 

 us that his wife came upon a specimen 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 said, died 

 from the effects of the blow. 166 This fine shell is used as a 

 badge of high rank in Tonga, or Friendly Islands, as well 

 as in Fiji. One of the most remarkable Fijian industries 

 is the working of whales' teeth to represent this cowry, as 

 well as the commoner C talpa, which is more easily 

 imitated. 1 *' 7 



The New Zealanders, it is stated, use Cypnca asellus 

 and other shells to form the eyes of their idols. 16S 



Codrington, in his " Melanesians" (Oxford, 1891, p. 26), 

 tells us that in Aurora, the nearest of the New Hebrides 

 to the Bank's Islands, the natives have a story that the 

 first woman came from a cowry-shell. Somewhat analogous 

 ideas are expressed in the traditions of the Samoans as 

 to the origin of man. By these people it is believed 



ir,+ /. Anthrop. Ins'., IX (1891-2), pp. 105-6, pi. x., f. 5. 



106 Melvill & Standen, "Lifu Mollusca," Journ. of Couho'ogy, viii., 

 1895, P- 112. 



166 Ibid., p. 131. 



107 A. II. Cooke, " Mollusks," Camb, Nat Hist., 1895, P- 9^- 

 1CS Ibid, p. 99. 



