Introduction. xiii 



sprung out of the fanciful resemblance which a particular 

 group of primitive men imagined they could detect between 

 the cowry and the female organs of reproduction. 



In his remarkable work " D'Amboinsche Rariteit- 

 kamer," published in Amsterdam in 1741, Rumphius 

 informs his readers that the cowry was referred to by 

 Ennius under the name "matriculus "; and he explains the 

 meaning of this expression thus : — " Apud utorsque nomen 

 accepterunt a similitudine pudendi muliebris, quod Grseci 

 Chaeron, Latini porcum et porculum vocant, cujus aliquam 

 similitudinem refert hujus Conchaerina " (II Boek, p. 113). 

 Twenty-one years later Adanson, in his " Histoire natur- 

 elle du Senegal," '^ referring to the use of the terms 

 "Pucelage" and "Concha Venerea," says: — "Concha 

 Venerea sic dicta quia partem foemineam quodam modo 

 repraesentat : externe quidem per labiorum fissuram, 

 interne vero propter cavitatem uterum mentientem. . . . 

 Sunto igitur dictae Porcellanae (id est Venereae) ob 

 aliquam cum puderido muliebri similitudinem." Aldrov. 

 Exang., p. 552. These ideas are still current in Japan at 

 the present day.' 



That such fancied resemblances were really regarded 

 so seriously in ancient times as to confer vital powers 

 upon the simulating object has just been claimed for the 

 mandrake by Dr. Rendel Harris.* He refers the origin 

 of this association to- Cyprus, which also gave the cowry 

 its scientific name, Cypraea ; and in attributing the origin 

 of the cult of Aphrodite to the magical fertilising property 

 of the anthropoid mandrake (when worn against the flesh 



2 " Coquillages," p. 65— Paris, 1762. 



^ W. L. Hildbiirgh, "Some Japanese Charms connected with the 

 making of Clothing," Man, Feb., 1917, p. 28. (See the Appendix of this 

 book, p. 205), 



« " The Origin of the Cult of Aphrodite," Manchester, 1916, republished 

 in his "Ascent of Olympus," 1917. 



