XX Introdnction. 



hundred cowries were given as a bridal dowrj'. To meet 

 such exorbitant demands, especially in places where these 

 shells could not be obtained locally, but had to be im- 

 ported, the most valuable possessions of the people, cows, 

 sheep and goats, were given in exchange for cowries in 

 order to secure the social and magical advantages they 

 were believed to bring. This was, I believe, the origin of 

 the use of cowries as currency, and also incidentally how 

 sheep and cattle came to occupy so definite a significance 

 in early currencies. It may perhaps be suggestive of the 

 original magical value of cowries that, according to tradi" 

 tion, when these shells were first introduced among the 

 Baganda, two of them were given in exchange for a 

 woman. At a later period two thousand five hundred of 

 them were obtained in exchange for a cow to make the 

 dowry, offered to the bride. 



As a further illustration from Baganda of the signifi- 

 cance attached to this shell as an animating force, cowries 

 were placed along with the deceased king's jaw and 

 umbilical cord." Cowries were also offered to twins ; and 

 if one of them died, a "double" was made for it, and 

 supplied with these vitalising shells. Not only in East 

 Africa, but also in many other places the cowry was thus 

 brought into intimate relationship with the peculiar beliefs 

 connected with " heavenly twins " and " doubles," with 

 the placenta and the soul. 



It also played a part in a variet}' of blood-letting 

 ceremonies, such as circumcision and ear-piercing. 



In my essay on " Ships as Evidence of the Migrations 

 of Earl>- Culture " " I called attention to the fact that the 

 early Egyptians believed in the possibility of animating 



1° In ancient times the operculum of tlie shell Turbo was called 

 Umbilicus Veneris. 



1^ Manchester University Press, 1917, p. 29. 



