62 Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 



Maya or Aztec artist could have invented such striking 

 identities, without any knowledge of the fantastic designs 

 invented in India. 



In the Introduction Dr. Elliot Smith has explained 

 how ideas of fertility, the giving of life and resurrection 

 grew up in association with the cowrie. This chapter has 

 revealed how all of these attributes have been transferred 

 to the shell-trumpet not onh- in Asia, but also in America. 

 In the latter country such conceptions would be utterly 

 meaningless unless it be admitted that they were intro- 

 duced from the Old World. 



In Japan we find similar evidence of the transmission 

 of the same Indian ideas, but here owing to the proximity 

 of their source the confusion of the elements is not so 

 pronounced. In a picture {^Fig. 3, plate facing) given by 

 Picart {op. cit., vol. iv., pt. ii., 173S, pi. 138), which repre- 

 sents a group in the Temple of Osacca, we see expressed 

 the identical conception of the fish incarnation of Vishnu. 

 Picart describes this group as follows: " Canon,"' called 

 by some Travellers, the Son of Amidas, presides over the 

 Waters, and the Fish. He is the Creator of the Sun and 

 the Moon. This Idol, according to the Representation of 

 him,"^ has four arms, like his Father, is swallowed up by a 

 Fish, as far as his Middle, and is crowned with Flowers. 

 He has a Sceptre in one Hand, a Flower in another, and 

 a Ring in the third ; the fourth is closed, and the Arm 

 extended: Over against him, there is a Figure of an 

 humble Devotee, one half of whose Body lies concealed 

 within a Shell. There are four other Figures at a little 

 Distance on an Altar, each of them with their Hands 

 closed like humble Suppliants, from whence, as from so 

 many Fountains, flow Streams of Water." 



"* J. J. Rein ("Japan," 1SS4, p. 45S) refers to this well-known and " 

 popular deity as Kuwanon (pronounced Kannon) the goddess of mercy. 



"- Picart bases his account on the " Embassies of the Dutch to Japan." 



