Use of Cowry-sliells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 171 



regarded a.s an expansion and elaboration of the type of 

 game represented by the Korean Nyout, and sacred and 

 divinatory in its origin." Nyout is played with staves. 

 " The two faces of the staves, black and white, may be 

 regarded as .signifying the dual principles of nature, 

 masculine and feminine. A feminine significarice is widel)' 

 attributed to the aperture of the cowrie shell. Its convex 

 side would natural!)' be regarded as masculine ; hence its 

 substitution for the staves would seem to have been an 

 easy transition." 



Games like Pachisi, in which cowries are used as dice, 

 are known in the Maldive Islands under the name Dliola, 

 and in Syria under the name of Edris a Jin; also in 

 Burma as Pasit}"^ 



In parts of Further India the cowry is still in circula- 

 tion as money. In Siam and Laos it serves as a form 

 of currency, and in the former country 6,400 cowries are 

 said to equal about is. 6d."^ At the end of the 17th century 

 La Loubere found it in use in all Si<uTi ; it was obtained 

 from the Laccadives, from Borneo and the Philippines, 

 where it was taken in as ballast by the siiips. About the 

 middle of the i8th century, according to Gervaise, the 

 Siamese small-change consisted of small shells, which the 

 Europeans called cowries and the Siamese Bia, Accord- 

 ing to Hertz they were no longer in use as small-change 

 at Bangkok in 1881."' 



In Burma the women of the Taungthas wear a loose 

 skirt adorned with a wide belt of cowries or silver filigree 

 work.'" 



'*! Culin, 0/1. lil., pp. S56-7. 



'*'- Deniker, op. n'/., p. 324 : See also " Centur\- Dictionary,'' ii., p. 

 1321. 



'*" Schneider, ofi. cit„ pp. 107-S. 



'** "Women of all Xaticns," p. 574. 



