Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 153 



hung with cowry-shells. The men-folk of the pagan 

 Kado negro in southern Haussaland, wear, according to 

 Rohlfs, a skin-apron hung with cowries, and the young 

 girls of the Kedje negro fasten on their leather-girdles a 

 bundle of small shells presented to them by their bride- 

 grooms. Barth mentions shell-ornament as in use by the 

 young women and girls of the Margin, and in Bagirmi,by 

 the pagan population in the south. The women especially 

 wear such ornament of cowries, and caps too are made 

 thereof, with which to decorate the heads of deceased 

 relations. Nachtigal also states that in this neighbour- 

 hood, at the funeral of a chief, " a small gourd-shell 

 full of beads and cowries was placed on the mouth in 

 order to serve to some extent as travelling expenses." 

 According to Rohlfs, the Mahommedan Aulad Rashid 

 (Arabs in N.W. Darfur) decorate the hair-plaits of their 

 camels and horses with the porcelain-shells, and the 

 women of Pebu adorn their arms with them. According 

 to Nachtigal, the wood- or tin-trombone, about one and 

 a half metres long, the hollowed antelope-horn, and the 

 short pipes of wood, brass or horn, which emitted such 

 terrible tones at festive processions of the Sheikhs in 

 Bornu, were all adorned with numerous cowries on the 

 surface. The Kawembu in Kanem and the Buduma of 

 the islands of Lake Chad also wear neck-chains of cowries. 

 The shells are a market-article in Kuka. They are taken 

 as an article of barter in journeys from Kuka to Bagirmi 

 and Wadai, where, especially by the native Arab and also 

 by the pagan negro, they are used as ornament. The 

 Mahommedan women in Bagirmi wear cowry neck-chains ; 

 the wives of the pagans in the Mofu district wear the 

 shells on the girdle and apron strings. In Abeshr 

 (Wadai), at the wedding of the king's daughter, thirt)^ 

 large baskets, adorned with shells or beads, were carried 



