Use of Coivry-shells for Ctirrency, Amulets^ etc. 173 



Among the Dyaks of Borneo it is the custom to place 

 the small white money-cowries in the eye-sockets of the 

 skulls of enemies, which they keep."' The baskets of the 

 Dyak head-hunter are also decorated with the same 

 cowries."" Specimens in the Leiden Museum show C. 

 annulus as decoration for sword-hangings from West 

 Borneo, and C. moneta as decoration for a betel-pouch 

 from South-east Borneo."' 



In certain parts of Malaysia, cowries are attached to 

 the fishing-nets, not as " net-sinkers " as recorded by 

 several ethnologists,"- but in order to ensure success in 

 fishing or to ward off evil influences. In Nias, an island 

 off the west coast of Sumatra, Cyprcea vitellus is so used ; 

 in Engano, an island in the same neighbourhood, the 

 species is C. ventriculus ; in Timor, C. arabica ; while off 

 N.W. New Guinea the shells employed are C. moneta, 

 C. caput-serpentis, C. erosa, C. lynx, C. tigris and C. vitellus}"'' 



According to Von Martens, the Berlin Museum con- 

 tains specimens of clothing ornamented with cowries, from 

 Bali, near Java.^** In Timorlaut the natives adorn cloth- 

 girdles with cowries, and in the same island, four species 

 of cowries, C. annulus, C. Isabella, C. erosa, and C. helvola, 

 are employed as neck-ornaments."* 



Van der Sande,"" describes and figures several neck- 

 ornaments from Dutch New Guinea, on which specimens 



'*» Slearns, op. cii., p. 302 ; Ralzel, op. cit., i., p. 135 (fig.). 



"° Ratzel, op. cit., vol. i., p. 448 (fig.) 



^''^ Schmeltz, " Schnecken und Muscheln in leben der volker Indo- 

 ne.siens und Oceaniens," Leiden, 1894. 



■"*' The slight weight of these shells would render them valueless as 

 sinkers. 



1°'' Schmeltz, op. cit. ' 



>"* Schneider, op. cit., p. 118. 



1"^ liid., and Schmeltz, op. cil. 



160 Yan der Sande, "Nova Guinea," iii , 1907, pp. 83, ii/S, pi. xiii., 

 fig. 4. 



