1 68 Shells as evidence of /he Migrations. 



obtained by means of rafts made of the branches and 

 leaves of the cocoa-nut lashed together and floated on 

 the surface of the sea. The work was carried out by 

 women. When sufficient animals had become attached 

 to the rafts by climbing aloft among the branches, these 

 were dragged ashore and the shells spread out on the 

 sands to enable the sun to dr\' up the contained animals. 

 The Arab author, Ebn Beithar, who died in 1248, also 

 mentions the Maldives as a locality from which cowries 

 were obtained.™ These islands are also referred to by 

 Ibn Batuta, the Arabian traveller of the 14th century, 

 who speaks of the use of cowries ( Wada) there as currencj' 

 and alms-gifts."' At the beginning of the 17th centur\-, 

 Frangois Pyrard de Laval, observed the fishing of the 

 cowries by the women of the Maldives. According to 

 him they were collected twice a month, three days after 

 the new moon and three days after the full moon. The 

 shells were in such demand in India that sometimes 30 to 

 40 ships were seen loaded with them. In Cambay and 

 other Indian places, the prettiest were used as ornaments 

 along with silver and gold, and held as great rarities, as 

 if they were precious stones. They also passed current 

 there as money under the nam.e Boly, and at burials they 

 were scattered on the way from the house of the defunct 

 to the cemetery as alms for the poor.''" Captain Owen, in 

 1832,"'' gives an account of the collecting of cowries in the 

 Alaldives somewhat similar to that of Masudi. He further 

 remarks on the similarity of the rafts, or balsas, to those 

 used on the coasts of Chili and Peru. 



Bengal seems to have been the great market for the 

 cowries from the Maldives. From there the}- were widely 



^"'' fide Schneider, op. cit., p. no. 



'" See Translation by Lee, of. cit., pp. 178 & 181. 



^'= Schneider, op. cil., p. in. 



^'= Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc. LoiuL, vol. 2, 1832, pp. 82-3. 



