24 Shells as evidence of the Mignitions. 



skeins are taken in boats by the fishermen along the coast 

 northward, where suitable habitats of the caracol or sea- 

 snail are visited. " Slipping a skein over his left wrist, 

 the fisherman wrenches one sea-snail after another from 

 the wet rocks, blows on it, causing it to exude the dye- 

 stuff, which resembles a milky froth, and then dabs the 

 cotton thread with numerous shells in succession, until it 

 is thoroughly saturated. When each shell had yielded its 

 small supply of liquid dye, some fisherman pressed it to 

 the rock and waited until it adhered thereto, but others 

 laid the shell in a pool. When treated thus the same 

 shells yielded a second, though diminished supply, when 

 the rocks were visited on the return journey" (pp. 

 369-370). 



The late Professor von Martens, in a paper read 

 before the Berlin Anthropological Society on October 

 22nd, 1898,*'' deals very thoroughly with the subject of 

 purple dyeing in Central America. In this valuable con- 

 tribution he discusses the evidence as to whether the 

 employment of the shell-fish for dyeing purposes was an 

 independent and precolumbian invention of the Indians, 

 or was introduced by the Spaniards. He rightly con- 

 cludes that it was practised in America in pre-historic 

 times. 



Through Professor Edward Seler, Professor von Mar- 

 tens obtained information of the Tehuantepec industry, 

 and was shown not only a purple skirt, which the Zapote- 

 can women wear only on special occasions and which but 

 few can afford, but also kerchiefs with purple stripes such 

 as are worn by the Huave Indians, to the south-west of 

 Tehuantepec. 



Professor von Martens found, on examining some of 



»* Verhand. Berliner Gesell. fur Anthrop. Ethnol. 11. Urgesch., 1S98, 

 pp. 482-6. 



