Use of Cozvry -shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 145 



and is designed to insure fecundity. This consists of 

 a piece of wood sewn into a small cat-skin bag 

 ornamented with cowry-shells, which is worn round the 

 waist, so that the amulet rests in front of the wearer." 

 Divination is also practised by means of pieces of 

 leather decorated with cowry-shells. They are also 

 offered to propitiate the spirits of trees ; and sent by the 

 king as presents to each of the important deities. Another 

 most important use is to decorate the jawbones of deceased 

 kings. Some five months after the death and burial of a 

 king the tomb is entered and the head severed from the 

 body and brought away. The jawbone is then removed 

 and placed in an ant hill until all the flesh is eaten awaj', 

 the skull meanwhile being given special burial in a place 

 near the tomb. The jawbone, after being cleansed and 

 washed in beer and milk, is wrapped in fine barkcloth 

 which has been rubbed with butter, and is decorated with 

 beads and cowry-shells collected during the king's lifetime 

 from people succeeding to chieftainships. A temple is 

 then built to receive the decorated jawbone and umbilical 

 cord of the late king, and also the umbilical cord of the 

 ex-queen.™ At the end of the royal mourning cowry- 

 shells are thrown on the fire as if they were fuel ; this is 

 also done at ceremonies to prolong the king's life.™ 



In the marriage ceremonies of the Baganda these 

 shells form an important part of the dowry, the bridegroom 

 having to provide as many as two thousand five hundred." 

 On the birth of twins it is the custom for the grandmother 

 to make each twin a present of cowry-shells, and everyone 

 coming to see them throws cowry-shells into a basket 



""■ Ibid., p. 331. 



'■^ Ibid., pp. 109-10. 



" Ibid., p. 108. 



" Ibid., pp. 88-9. 



