Cowry

“ The cowry shell, which is worn round the neck by children as an antidote to the Evil Eye and diabolical influence, is supposed to have such sympathy with the wearer that it cracks when the evil glance falls upon it, as in England coral was thought to change colour and grow pale when its owner was sick. The cowry shell is, with the same object, tied round the neck or pasterns of a valued horse, or on a cow or buffalo. ”

“ Upwards of 100 species are recognized, and they are widely distributed over the world—their habitat being the shallow water along the sea-shore. The best known is the money cowry or Cypraea moneta, a small shell about half an inch in length, white and straw-coloured without and blue within, which derives its distinctive name from the fact that in various countries it has been employed as a kind of currency. ”

“ The money cowry is also used as ornaments on the trappings of horses and elephants, as well as on the persons of men and women. The rich yellow variety is much sought after by the chiefs of several island tribes, who permit no one but themselves or their sub-chiefs to wear them. ”

“ From very ancient times the smaller Cowries have been used for adornment or barter. The Cypraea annulus, or ringed cowrie, which was found by Dr. Layard in the ruins of Nimroud, is said to be the same species which is now used by the islanders of the Indian and Pacific Oceans to weight their fish nets and to adorn their persons. In western Africa the money cowry (Cypraea moneta) has been and is now used as a medium of exchange in place of gold. ”

“ The use of fig-leaves for the girdle in Palestine is an interesting connecting link between the employment of the cowry and the mandrake for similar purposes in the neighbourhood of the Red Sea and in Cyprus and Syria respectively (vide infra) .
In Greece and Italy, the sweet basil has a reputation for magical [Pg 156] properties analogous to those of the cowry. Maidens collect the plant and wear bunches of it upon their body or upon their girdles; while married women fix basil upon their heads. ”

“ The most rare and valuable, if not the most beautiful of these Cowries, is the C. aurora, or aurantium, Morning-dawn, or Orange Cowry, a perfect specimen of which has been sold for fifty guineas. There is a very curious shell called the Common Weaver’s Shuttle, (Oculum volva,) generally included in the Cyprea family ”

“ The rate of exchange of the cowry is much higher in Africa than in Asia, which shows that this shell is an imported object. It was probably by the Arabs that the cowry was introduced to the east coast of Africa. Later on the Europeans also got hold of this trade. [319]
The cowry is still current to-day along all the west coast of Africa as far as the Cuanza River in Angola; farther south, as far as Walfisch Bay, another kind of “shell-money” is found, chaplets formed of fragments of a great land shell, the Achatina monetaria, strung on cord ”

“ The typical form is more or less cylindrical, or pyriform, while others are flat, oval or egg-shaped. The surface varies from smooth to spirally lined and pustulose. In size they vary from the little Trivia exigua, scarcely one-fourth of an inch long, to the huge Cypraea testudinaria, nearly five inches in length.
Many of the larger species, like the tiger cowry (Cypraea tigris) and the black cowry (Cypraea mauritiana) have been household ornaments for centuries and have also served as playthings for young children, who have held them to their ears to “hear the sound of the roaring sea.” ”

“ Miss Winifred M. Crompton, Assistant Keeper of the Egyptian Department of the Manchester Museum, has called my attention to a remarkable piece of evidence which affords additional corroboration of the view that Hathor was a development of the cowry-amulet. Upon the famous archaic palette of Narmer (Fig. 18) , a sporran, composed of four representations of Hathor's head, takes the place of the original cowries that were suspended from more primitive girdles. ”

“ They founded their belief on the fact that some individuals of the same species were larger than others. This, however, is due simply to individual variation.
The beautiful colors so much admired are deposited by the reflected mantle and their variety is almost endless. Some are perfectly plain, white, brownish, yellowish or orange, others are spotted with red, white, brown, drab or black, and still others are variously banded. The eyed-cowry (Cypraea argus) has large, dark brown spots on a lighter background.
In form and sculpture the Cowries present a rather wide range of variation. ”

“ The Sanskrit vocabulary called Trikāṇḍaśesha (iii. 3, 206) makes 20 kapardika (or kauṛīs) = 1⁄4 paṇa; and this value seems to have been pretty constant. The cowry table given by Mr. Lindsay at Silhet, circa 1778, exactly agrees with that given by Milburn as in Calcutta use in the beginning of last century, and up to 1854 or thereabouts it continued to be the same:
This gives about 5120 cowries to the Rupee. ”

“ In confinement in a tank, he says, the little animal frequently crawls foot-uppermost along the surface of the water, and occasionally may be seen to form a little disc of mucus, from which it lowers itself gently by a mucous thread till it hangs in mid-water, dangling in the fashion of a Spider at the end of its silken cord. "This habit of the Cowry is to be correlated," Mr. Hornell adds, "to that more familiar and natural one so readily verified by any observer who visits the low-tide caves and gullies where, amongst Sponges and Ascidians, this animal loves so to live. ”

“ The shells of the genus Cypræa, cowry, are general favourites: the species are fifty-eight; one British, C. pediculus. C. moneta (Plate 1) is very common. The generic characters are, shell univalve, involute, obtuse, smooth; aperture linear, the whole length of the shell ”

“ The usurper Wang Mang, who ruled A.D. 9-23, tried to revive the old systems, and issued rules instituting, in addition to the metallic money, ten classes of tortoise-shell and five of smaller shells, the value of all based on the cowry, which was worth 3 cash. [94] [Cowries were part of the tribute paid by the aborigines of Puanit to Metesouphis I. (Maspero, Dawn of Civ., p. 427) .]
The currency of cowries in India does not seem to be alluded to by any Greek or Latin author. ”

“ Fig. 3, the Mole Cowry, (C. talpa,) the last word being the Latin for a mole, is of a more slender form than most other species of the Cypræidæ family, so called on account of their beauty, Cyprea being a name of Venus, the goddess of beauty. Any one who has seen a mole, must be struck with the resemblance of its general [40] outline to this shell, of which there is a darker-coloured variety of somewhat stouter form, called exustus—burned or scorched. Of the Poached-egg Cowries there are several species, the most common is called by naturalists Ovulum ovum, Fig. 4, from ovum—an egg ”

“ He is not used for agriculture, but given to a Jogi, who covers him with cowry shells, and carries him about on begging excursions. One of the most unpleasant sights at the great bathing fairs, such as those of Prayâg or Hardwâr, is the malformed cows and oxen which beggars of this class carry about and exhibit. ”

“ Lately, we find a few of the small species are become a new genus, Trivia.
"The character of the Cypræa is a longitudinal aperture, toothed, in the adult state, on each side. The spire is scarcely to be seen.
"While the shells are young they have the appearance of a Voluta or a cone; the aperture spreads more, and is without teeth.
"The individuals of each species pass through three different states:
"In the first, the form is very imperfect; it is like a thin cone, and shows no character of the genus; hence young students are perplexed if they chance to have a young cowry in their collection. ”

“ The Cowries are without exception the most beautiful of all shells, whether the richness and harmony of their colours, or the exquisite polish of their exterior, is considered; but (like many other things of more consequence) their beauty is depreciated by their frequency. The indefatigable Lamarck has described sixty-six species, only one of which inhabits the European seas. Adanson has furnished a minute account of the structure of the animal, and Bruguiere has given long and interesting details of its economy. ”

“ Late in the following summer, when the fireweed was beginning to crimson the open spaces on the hillside, fate came to the water-meadows in a form which the bell was powerless to avert. An Indian, paddling down the Quah-Davic to the sea, caught sight of the red cow drinking by the waterside. He knew there was no settlement within leagues. He knew the cow was a stray, and therefore no man's property. He knew he wanted fresh meat, to say nothing of cowhide for moccasins and thongs. Up went his big smooth-bore muzzle-loader. ”

“ The pretty cowrie, lemon-coloured and grey and brown, throws over its shining shoulders a shawl of the hue of the rock on which it crawls about, grey or brown or tawny, with white specks and dots which make for invisibility—a thin filmy shawl of exquisite sensitiveness. Touch it ever so lightly, and the helpless creature, discerning that its disguise has been penetrated, withdraws it, folding it into its shell, and closes its door against expected attack. It may feebly fall off the rock, and simulating a dead and empty shell, lie motionless until danger is past. ”

“ An occasional swinging light may still be seen, but it is the mountaineer giving attention to some trouble among his stock. Then, there is silence over the valley, except for the chorus of katydids and the whistle of the gray owl to his mate in the woods. Now and then there comes the soft, faint clank of a cow-bell, different from its sound as the cows run the road or feed in the pasture. It is a slow and sleepy tang that soothes the ear. ”

“ There are many devices, such as burning tiger’s flesh, and similar prophylactics, in the cow-house to drive away the demon of disease. So, on New Year’s Day the Highlander used to fumigate his cattle shed with the smoke of juniper.92 Cow hair is regarded as an amulet against disease and danger, in the same way as the hair of the yak was valued by the people of Central Asia in the time of Marco Polo.93 An ox with a fleshy excrescence on his eye is regarded as sacred, and is known as Nadiya or Nandi, “the happy one,” the title of the bull of Siva. ”

“ And now they all heard what he had heard first—they heard the tonk-tonk-tonk of a cowbell, coming near and nearer toward them along the hallway without. It was as though the sound floated along. There was no creak of footsteps upon the loose, bare boards—and the bell jangled faster than it would dangling from a cow's neck. The sound came right to the door and Squire Gathers wallowed among the chair legs. ”

“ A little alum, or a few cowrie shells worn about the dress, avert this evil; and this is the reason why so many trappings for horses and camels are all trimmed with cowrie shells.
Perhaps the most curious thing of all is to hear of men declaring that they would sooner eat poison than taste the fat meat hung up in the butchers' shops, lest any hungry beggar should have beheld and coveted it. They prefer going to distant shops, where the meat is concealed from the passers-by. Only think of the row of carriages outside some fashionable confectioner's shop ”

“ The one are called Dewa-Kauḍha, 'the Isles of the Cowries,' because of the Cowries that they collect on the branches of coco-trees planted in the sea."—Albirūnī, in J. As., Ser. IV. tom. iv. 266.
c. 1240.—"It has been narrated on this wise that as in that country (Bengal) , the kauṛi [shell] is current in place of silver, the least gift he used to bestow was a lak of kauṛis. The Almighty mitigate his punishment [in hell] !"—Ṭabaḳāt-i-Nāṣiri, by Raverty, 555 seq.
c. 1350.—"The money of the Islanders (of the Maldives) consists of cowries (al-wada') . ”

“ In habits the Cowries are shy and they are slow in movement, sliding over the coral reefs and marine vegetation with a sluggish, steady motion. They present a beautiful sight when viewed through the water, their brilliant colors vying with those of corals, sea anemones and sea weeds. ”

“ For the native blooded cow of Virginia, from shivering over half rations of corn stalks, in the open air, during those bleak and windy winters, and roaming over those parched fields in summer, has come to have some marked features. For one thing, her pedal extremities seemed lengthened; for another, her udder does not impede her travelling; for a third, her backbone inclines strongly to the curve; then, she despiseth hay. This last is a sure test. Offer a thorough-bred Virginia cow hay, and she will laugh in your face; but rattle the husks or shucks, and she knows you to be her friend. ”

“ A polished bodkin of white petrified shell, with sharp-pointed ends, thrust through a hole in the partition of his nostrils, extended five inches across his face. About his neck, from a cord of twisted coconut sennit, hung an ivory-white necklace of wild-boar’s tusks. A garter of white cowrie shells encircled one leg just below the knee. A flaming scarlet flower was coquettishly stuck over one ear, and through a hole in the other ear was threaded a pig’s tail so recently severed that it still bled. ”

“ Wristlets (khekap) of cowries sewn on cloth may be worn by anyone who has done the head-taking “genna.”16 A man who has got first, second or third spear in at the killing of an enemy has a little cross of cowries at the top of his wristlets. Those worn by the Northern Lhotas are identical with the Sema type. They are bought from the Aos and are composed of cowries filed down till they are very narrow and sewn close together on to a cloth foundation. A red hair fringe (khezi) is worn, on the wristlets, ordinarily short, but of long hair in the case of a warrior of note. ”