Use of Cowry-shells for Cnrrcmy, Avinlets, etc. 175 



Cyprcea vioneta appears to have been current also in 

 other islands of the Pacific, as Brenchley states:'™ "At 

 Eramango [New Hebrides] a shell called ' Nunpuri,' the 

 Cypr(ea 7«o«eto, passes as money, as also in New Caledonia." 



In the Bismark Archipelago, says Schneider (op. cit., 

 p. 118), C. aiiniilus was found as money in special cases. 



In Gilbert Archipelago, the Ellice and Kingsmill 

 Islands, Cyprcea inoneia and C. anmilus are used as body- 

 ornament and for decorating implements and tools.'"" 



F. W. Christian, in his article " On Micronesian 

 Weapons, Dress, Implements, etc,'"" figures a cowry-shell 

 used in the Carolines for stripping off the outer skin of 

 the bread-fruit. The figured shell looks like a Cyprcea 

 niajtritiann. He also figures an Ovuhtin ovum shell 

 (often alluded to as the white cowry) pierced for 

 ornamenting prows of canoes. The use of this shell 

 as a canoe-ornament is general throughout the Pacific. 

 Amongst other places it is recorded from the Pelew Islands,^ 

 Yap, Gilbert Archipelago, Samoa, Nine, Viti Islands, 

 Solomon Archipelago and Torres Straits Islands. In 

 some of these and in other islands it is also worn as an 

 ornament for the neck, breast, or leg, and placed on the 

 outsides of native houses. In Tonga it is used as a grave- 

 ornament, and in the Solomons as decoration of an idol.'"" 



In Tahiti, Cyprcea moneta and C. talpa are worn on 

 the neck, and C. tigris occurs on the base of an idol from 

 Tahiti, now in the British Museum."" Sir C. H. Read, in 

 his description of specimens obtained on Vancouver's 



t5a Brenchley, "Cruise of tlie ' Curajoa,' " 1873, p. 299, quoted by C. 

 Hedley, Mem. Ausl. Rhis., iii., pt. 7, 1899, P- 452- 



i''» Sclineider, op. cit., p. 118. 



»" ' /. Anthrop. Inst., 28 (1898-9), pp. 28S et seq., pi. xxiv., f. 5. 



^"^^ Schmeltz, " .Schnecken und Muschelii in leben der volUer Indo- 

 nesiens und Oceanians," Leiden, 1894. 



J«» Ibid. 



