Use of Coivry-shells for Cm rency, A niulets, etc. 1 69 



distributed over India, not only over the plains of tlie 

 north and north-west, but also along the east coast and 

 even to the slopes of the Himalayas and to the Deccan 

 plateau."' 



Besides their use as mone)' in India the same shells 

 are employed to ornament the trappings of horses and 

 elephants, as previously remarked. They are also strung 

 like beads or sewed like buttons on the dresses of the 

 Brinjari women of Nagpur province.''" According to Dr. 

 Curt Boeck, they are traded in Indian bazaars, especially 

 for bordering the cloth-masks of shamans.''" In many 

 Indian places, e.g., Gahsi, Punjab, one still finds C. aunubi-s 

 worn by the native women. The Todas of the Nilgiri 

 Hills, S. India, wear a C. moiieta on a heavy silver collar 

 (Schneider, op. cit., p. 117). According to Thurston, this 

 same species is also worn by Toda women on their thread 

 and silver armlet.s and necklets. As in Africa, cowries 

 are associated with Toda death ceremonies. When a 

 person dies, various objects such as rice, hone}', and other 

 food-stuffs, together with cowries, " with which to purchase 

 food in the celestial bazar," are burned with him. Like 

 the Todas, the Kotas of the Nilgiris occasionally make use 

 of cowries ; they are sometimes seen on the necklets of 

 the women ; and at funeral ceremonies when the skulls of 

 the deceased are brought to the funeral ground to be burnt, 

 a pole, twenty feet long, decorated with cowries, is also 

 burned in the case of a male. The Nilgiri Irula women, too, 

 sometimes have bead necklets with cowry-shells pendent.'" 



^"* Sclmeider, «A «■/., p. iii. 



^•"' Stearns, " Ethno-conchology — A Study of Primitive Money," 

 Report U. S. Nat. Mas., 1887, p. 302. 



^"'' .Schneider, op. liL. pp. 116-7. 



'■'" E. Thurston, Madias Goveniment Mti.'^eiim, Hnlletin \o. 4, iSgb, 

 pp. 754, 174 (Todas), 192, igS (Kotas) ; vol. ii., Nd, i., 1897, pp. I4and 16, 

 pi. V, (Irulas). 



