208 



COWRIES. 



increased to three. The owner was an excellent 

 ship -master, who carefully supplied his employees 

 with maps, charts, and sailing directions. He 

 died in 1859, leaving a self-insuring fleet of 18 

 sail. In 1863 his sons had raised the number 

 to 24, and they kept up large establishments at 

 Lagos and Zanzibar. 



The retail cowrie trade was solely in the hands 

 of Moslems ; the Banyans would not sanction 

 the murder of their possible grandmothers. On 

 the Continent, as on the Island, the shells are 

 sunned till the fish dies and decays, spreading a 

 noxious foetor through the villages. The collec- 

 tion is then stored in holes till exported to Zan- 

 zibar. There the European wholesale merchant 

 garbles, washes, and stows away the shells in bags 

 for shipment. They are sold by the 6 Jizleh,' a 

 weight varying according to the size of the shell : 

 from 3 to 3.50 sacks would be the average. The 

 price of the Jizleh presently rose to $7, to $8, 

 and in 1859 it was about $9. Seven vessels were 

 then annually engaged in carrying cargoes from 

 Zanzibar to Lagos and its vicinity. This rude 

 money finds its way to Tinbuktu (Timbuctoo) 

 and throughout Central Africa, extending from 

 the East to places as yet unvisited by Europeans. 

 Of late years, however, the increased metallic 



