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



Mr. Willoughby believes that cowry shells were sold 

 to the Indians by the Hudson's Bay Company late in the 

 eighteenth or early in the nineteenth century. 



Prof. Henry Montgomery 102 records and figures a cowry 

 found near the so-called Onatonabee Serpent Mound, 

 Peterboro County, Ontario. Mr. C. B. Moore, {pp. cit., 

 p. 295) says : " The shell described by Professor Mont- 

 gomery is a regular Cyprcea moiuta, or money cowry of 

 Africa and the East, and not a California shell. This 

 shell, which, by the way, is not pierced for stringing, is 

 probably one from the Hudson's Bay Company stock. 

 We do not think the sale of cowries to Indians in the 

 North at a comparatively late date by the Hudson's Bay 

 Company indicates a relatively recent origin for the 

 Roden mounds, for, at a period when the supplies of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company could have reached the makers 

 of the Roden mounds, articles of European make could 

 have got among them from all directions and the mounds 

 presumably would have been well supplied with glass 

 beads, brass, iron, and other things obtained from Euro- 

 pean sources which, as we see, was very far from being 

 the case." 



In an old account by G. A. Cooke, 193 dealing with the 

 habits and customs of the Indians of the most northern 

 parts of America, some interesting particulars are given 

 concerning the ceremonies observed by certain tribes 

 previous to waging war. One of the most hideous of 

 these, Cooke informs us, was the setting of the war-kettle 

 on the fire, as an emblem that they were going out to 

 devour their enemies. A porcelaue, or large shell, was 

 then dispatched to their allies, inviting them to come 

 along and drink the blood of their enemies. Unfortu- 



i0 - Trans. Canad. hist., Toronto, 1910, ix. (i.) No. 20, p. 7, pi. iv.> 

 fig. 6 {fide Moore). 



103 Cooke, op. cit., II., p. 21. 



