In Afric’s Forest and Jungle 
native currency. This is a small shell (cyproea 
moneta) called cowry by the Sierra Leone people. 
Its divisions were cowries, strings, heads and 
bags. Forty cowries make a string, fifty strings 
make a head and twenty heads a bag. A bag or 
twenty thousand cowries cost me five dollars in 
American money. This was a bushel of native 
money for five dollars in American money. 
Near the coast, as at Abeokuta, the silver 
coin was used to purchase foreign goods; but 
in the interior it was used in the manufacture 
of jewelry. The purchasing power of the cow¬ 
ries increases as the distance from the coast in¬ 
creases, for they are introduced at seaport towns. 
A ship would bring in a cargo of the shells from 
some coast on which they abounded and exchange 
them for native produce for the foreign market. It 
required a large room to hold the money needed 
to build a house and while building, it took 
almost the entire time of one person to count out 
the money every day and have it ready to pay 
the workman when night came. The cowries 
paid to an able-bodied man for a day’s work, 
cost about five cents in American currency. The 
only thing that can be said in favor of such a 
medium of exchange is that it cannot be counter¬ 
feited. 
42 
