Use of Coivry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 15 1 



between the Arabs and the natives of the interior."" Leo 

 Africanus/'^ who wrote at the beginning of the i6th century, 

 mentions in his description of Timbuctoo that " the 

 natives of this place use small mussel-shells or snail^shells, 

 which were brought from Persia, of which 400 equal one 

 ducat, and six and two-thirds go to a Roman ounce." In 

 Benin, at the end of the 15th century, according to 

 Pereira, cowries, under the name Iguru, were in currency. 

 In the description of Commodore Stewart's embassy 

 journey to Mekines (Mequinez) in 1721, it is stated :" "The 

 goods, which they (the Moroccans) convey to Guinea, 

 are salt, cowries, etc. — Cowries are small shells, which are 

 brought from the East Indies, and they are current instead 

 of ready money, and as such have the highest value." 



From Timbuctoo and the Upper Niger"" the territory 

 of the cowry-currency extends to Lake Chad, with wide 

 spaces here and there in which the cowries do not, or only 

 in a minor degree, pass as currency. Barth mentions 

 three such places within the great bend of the Niger, — 

 Aribinda, where the shells had no value, and Isaye (Ise) 

 and Bambara, where they were employed only in the sale 

 of milk. The places noted by Barth as having the cowry- 

 currency were Kabara, near Timbuctoo, Saraiyamo, Kubo, 

 Dore, Bundore, Sinder and Say on the Niger ; Gando, 

 Sokoto, Wurno, Bamurna, Badarana, Kammane, Bunka, 

 Katsena, Kano, Lamisso, Kukameirua and Gummel, all in 

 the northern part of Sokoto State ; Tasawa, immediately 

 north of the Haussa region ; as well as Zinder, Wushek, 



"' Deniker, " Les Races et les Peuples de la Terre," Paris, 1900, p. 

 324; Schneider, op. cit., p. 119. 



°° Leo Africanus, "Description de I'Afrique," Lyon, 1556, p. 225 

 {/ide Schneider, op. cit., p. 119). 



'"' Thos. Winterbottom, "Nachrichten von der Sierra-Leone-Kiiste " 

 p. 221 {fide Schneider, op. cit., p. 119). 



"* Segu, Jenne, Kaarla, etc. 



