66 Shells as evidence of the Migrations. 



the shell, which gradually became louder till at last a little 

 female child was seen, which by degrees grew to be a 

 woman and married the raven. From this union came all 

 the Indians of the region." 



Thus preserved in the traditions of these people is the 

 identical conception which we have already observed in 

 pictorial manuscripts of the Mayas — the idea of the birth 

 of a female child from a sea-shell. Such a striking simi- 

 larity can hardly have been the result of accident. Turn- 

 ing to Ellen C. Semple's interesting book on " Influences 

 of Geographic Environment" (London, 191 1, p. 39S) we 

 find that these widely-separated peoples — the Haidas and 

 Tlingits of British Columbia and Alaska and the Mayas 

 of Yucatan — have been linked together on other cultural 

 grounds. 



In the Pacific Islands, especially in Samoa, there exists 

 a persistent belief in the presence of gods in conch-shell 

 trumpets. Some of the information relating to this idea, 

 extracted from Turner's interesting account of Samoa, 

 has already been given on an earlier page, where also 

 allusion has been made to the use of shell-trumpets at 

 moon ceremonies. Other gods, Turner informs us, are said 

 to be incarnate in the cuttle-fish, as well as in the large 

 white " cowry," {Ovulum ovuni) ; while Nonia, a village god, 

 was supposed to be present in the cockle-shell. Concern- 

 ing the origin of man some curious ideas are expressed in 

 the traditions of these people. It is believed that man is 

 formed from a species of mussel and that he casts his 

 skin like shell-fish ; from a man called Ariari (to appear) 

 and a woman sprang the cuttle-fish and the race of men. 

 Another of their traditions is that Lu had a wife, Gaogao- 

 o-le-tai (expanse of sea), who had a son also called Lu 

 and she next brought forth a lot of all kinds of shell-fish."' 



Codrington, in his "Melanesians" (Oxford, 1891, p. 26) 



^^* Turner, o/. «V. , pp. 8, 9, 12. etc. 



