Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amulets, etc. 191 



nately, neither the name of the tribes concerned, nor the 

 name of the shell employed, are given ; but the fact of 

 the latter being called a "porcelane" is not without 

 interest, as " porcelaine " is the common French term for 

 cowry. There is no certain evidence, however, to support 

 the conclusion that a cowry was the shell employed as a 

 war signal. Earlier in this Chapter we have seen that when 

 the Egbas of West Africa meditated war, cowries were 

 thrown into the air by the war-priest ; and in the Yoruba 

 country, where cowries are used for symbolic messages, 

 a solitary cowry indicates defiance. 



Oi'iila (Calpiiiniis) verrucosa L. 



A. — Philippines (after Keeve). 



B. — Ancient American graves (after Holmes). 



Mr. W. li. Holmes, in his " Art in Shell of the Ancient 

 Americans,"^"* illustrates in Plate xxxii. a number of 

 perforated marine shells exhumed from ancient graves of 

 North America, Two of these (Figs. 11 and 12) are of 

 special interest as coming within the scope of the present 

 discussion. Unfortunately the precise data regarding 

 the site of their discovery are not given ; all we are told is 



i"* Second Annual Repoit, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1S83, 

 pp. I79-30S- 



