COWRIES. 



207 



brilliant hues. The c Kheti,' or common cowrie, 

 is picked up when the tide is out in vast quan- 

 tities by the coast people, from Ra'as Hafun to 

 Mozambique. Lieut.-Colonel Hamerton was 

 fortunate enough in those early days to obtain 

 two specimens of the Cyprasa Broderipii, or 

 orange-cowrie, with a stripe down the dorsum. 

 Exaggerated ideas of its value had been spread, 

 and it was reported that £500 had been offered 

 for a single shell. The cowrie trade of Zanzibar 

 was begun by M. E. P. Herz, of Hamburg. He 

 made a daring speculation, and supplanted in 

 Western Africa the rare and expensive Hindo- 

 stan shell by the coarse, cheap Cyprsea of this 

 coast. During the last century the Portuguese 

 used to export cowries for Angola from the Rio 

 das Caravelhas, in Brazilian Porto Seguro. The 

 success of M. Herz's investment opened a mine 

 of wealth. M. Oswald (senior), afterwards Prus- 

 sian Consul-general at Hamburg, commenced as 

 half-owner of a small vessel which shipped 

 cowries at Zanzibar, and traded with them for 

 palm-oil at Appi Vista, Whydah, Porto Novo, 

 and lastly Lagos, on the Slave Coast. As the sack 

 was bought for $0.50 to $1.44, and sold for 88 

 to §9, the trip cleared $24,000 (£4800), paid half 

 in coin, half in ' oil ; ' and the single vessel soon 



