40 Shells as evidence of the Mignrlions. 



Von Martens refers to the use of shell -trumpets in 

 the Philippine Islands, in the island of Halmaheira (or 

 Gilolo)*^ and by the Alfurs of Ceram."" 



A fine specimen of a trumpet made from a large 

 Triton tritonis has recently been shown me by Professor 

 S. J. Hickson. It was obtained by him in the Celebes, 

 and is perforated on the side of one of the upper whorls. 

 It was used by the boatman who carried round the mails, 

 and may have originally come up from the south. 



In Papua, or New Guinea, Cassis cornuia, Triton 

 tritonis, and Ranella lampas, are used as trumpets, having 

 a hole drilled as a mouthpiece in pne of the upper whorls.^' 

 In addition to the Triton, Moseley* tells that a large 

 conical Strombus, perforated at the apex, not on the side, 

 as in Triton, is used by the natives of Humboldt Bay. 

 Among the musical instruments used by the natives of 

 the Admiralty Islands are conch-.shells perforated on the 

 side as usual.* 



The only instrument of the trumpet kind used by the 

 Torres Straits Islanders is a giant Fusus \F. proboscidiferus, 

 Lam.*"], or occasionally a large Triton. The Fusus is 

 universally employed, and, according to Haddon,"^ the 

 mouth-hole is always lateral. It was employed for con- 

 veying signals, but now at all events is most frequently 

 blown when the natives are sailing, especially when going 

 fast or racing. 



*° Zcits.fiir Ethnol., iv., 1872, p. 34, fide Schmeltz, " Schnecken und 

 Muscheln im leben der volker Indonesiens und Oceaniens," Leiden, 1894. 



*° Verhand. der Berl. Anthro. Cess., 1898, p. 485. 



*' A. H. Cooke, »/. cii., p. 99. 



•>" Moseley, "Notes by a Naturalist on H.M..S. ' Challenger'," 1892, 

 p. 378. 



■" Moseley, op. cit., p. 407, also Jour. Anihrop. Inst., 6, 1876-7, 

 p. 411. 



° ' Probably Megalatrachus ariianus (L). 



°' "Anthrop. Exped. to Torres Straits," Cambridge, iv., 1912, p. 283, 

 and fig. 248. 



