Use of Cotvyy-shells for Cu.rrency, Amulets, etc. 147 



of value.*' Schweinfurth also depicts a fashion in hair 

 among the Monbuttus, by which the head is surrounded 

 with a regular saint's halo. The hair, in plaits, is spread 

 out round the whole head and fastened to a hoop adorned 

 with cowry-shells.** 



The Wavira of the upper Ituri wear in their ears a 

 wooden plug with cowries at both ends ; this object is in 

 the Lunda Empire an amulet hung by a string from the 

 ^neck.''' Cowries were also seen by Junker used as orna- 

 ments by the Bagarambo on the Welle River. And 

 Thonner reports cowries in common use by the Mog- 

 wandi north of the upper Dua and by the neighbouring 

 races ; by the Mobali in the hair, and by a Banza man 

 from Bogola as a neck-chain. On the middle and upper 

 Ubangi and on the Welle to its source cowries pass current 

 as money ; they are also in use as such by the Basoko 

 inhabiting the region of the Congo between Stanley Falls 

 and the Aruwimi confluence. In 1886 Lenz saw them 

 used for ornament by the Nkaia at Riba Riba above the 

 Stanley Falls, as well as in other places. According to 

 Johnston cowries were made use of as small-change 

 everywhere on the Upper Congo. Large numbers of them 

 were placed in the graves with the dead. In Nyangwe 

 they were in use along with other objects of barter in 

 Livingstone's (1871), Cameron's (1874), Stanley's (1876) 

 and Pogge's time, and often served as presents for the 

 chiefs and for purchasing necessary articles of food in the 

 districts through which these and other travellers passed. 

 In Uhombo, between the Congo and Lake Tanganyika, 

 they were the current money in Stanley's time. At Mpala, 



^^ Ibid., p. 173 ; and Schweinfurth, " The Heart of Africa," London, 

 1873, vol. i., p. 299; ii., p. 9. 



*" Ratzel, op. cit., iii., p. 69; Schweinfurth, op. cit., ii., p. 7 (Text- 

 figure). 



** Ratzel, op. cit., iii., p. 69. 



