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Cowries — Part 1

Reeve politely discredits much of the account, as do subsequent authorities. However, it is generally accepted that the inside of the shell, down to the lips, is gradually dissolved as the exterior is added to; by this means room is gained for the growing body. The shell is made largely of carbonate of lime, a substance easily soluble by an acid secretion. It is believed that this process is periodic, occuring but two or three times; and that the readjustment is accomplished in retirement and in a very short time.

Differences in size of adult shells of one species are believed to be individual. The stage of development of a shell may be roughly estimated by the shape, size, colour and pattern. Cypraea exanthema is typical. The young mollusk has a thin bulla-shaped shell, with wide aperture, and prominent spire. The surface is banded with flame-like streaks of brown. Gradually the lip thickens on the side next to the aperture, while the back and sides receive layers from the mantle edge which bury the coils of the spire completely. Lip and columella grow closer together and become toothed. Coloured layers alternate with thin coats of white enamel. The final layer of colour is in bright spots and the bands are faintly seen under the pale ground colour. The enamel is much more brilliant than on any former layer, the final polish being the last constructive effort of the mantle.

Cowries are used for personal adornment among uncivilised tribes. Overlapping rows of small ones cover the skin jackets worn in Borneo. The harness of elephants and horses in India are trimmed with cowry bands. Strung as beads, or sewed like buttons on clothing they satisfy the primitive craving for personal decoration in many regions. Among civilised people, in whom the same instinct persists, the small blue-backed money cowry is often seen joined in bracelets, each shell with a little cameo figure cut in the back. Sleeve buttons, brooches, beads and small charms are also made of these. Snuff-boxes, salt cellars, jewel caskets and other articles are made of the large ones. Spoon bowls, ring trays, whistles and figures of animals are some of the incongruous objects into which these shells are transmuted. Beautiful in their natural state, they rarely gain anything in this attempted "improvement." The price of the cowry is augmented by the addition of ornamentation; its value usually drops to zero in the hands of the enterprising manufacturer of "souvenirs." Could anything be more unseemly than a handsome tiger cowry, its beauty defaced by etching upon it, with strong acids in ornate letters and flourishes, the Lord's Prayer! This I found in company with grotesque imitations of pigs and pug dogs, punch-ladles and pin cushions, all made of cowries and jostling each other on a crowded booth counter at a seashore summer resort.

A sense of the eternal fitness of things steers the person of taste by all such vulgarities; but so long as there are buyers these things will be made, and we shall see them decorating (?) mantelpieces and "what-nots" in comfortable American homes. Beware the person who, seeing a beautiful sea shell, undertakes "to make something out of it." The result is almost always inartistic, and useless. If we have fallen unthinkingly into the snare, let us atone for our fault by destroying the poor, mutilated thing forthwith.

The Money Cowry (C. moneta, Linn.) varies from deep canary yellow to white; the back of variety annula is encircled by a faint ring of dull red or orange. The shells are heavy, with thick, angled margins, smooth or noduled bases and blunt teeth in the apertures. In length the forms vary from 2/3 to 1 1/2 inches. They live on the reefs of coral islands, but are happiest on sandy mud flats.

A collector describes the animal as creamy white, the mantle elegantly veined with black, and fringed with numerous simple processes, ringed with white and tipped with lilac. The snout is buff, the tentacles veined with black, and the siphon yellow with fringed tip.

Habitat.--Indian Ocean, Pacific Islands, Australia.

Various shells furnish the raw material out of which wampum and other money of aboriginal tribes are made. The money cowry is a ready-made currency, like the tooth shell. It requires only to be strung. The use of cowries as money dates far back into antiquity. They were found in the ruins of Nimrud. Marco Polo found them in circulation in Yunnan, in the thirteenth century. The earliest mention of them is contained in a Hindoo arithmetic of the seventh century, A.D. Translated, the "example" reads as follows:

The 1/4 of 1/16 of 1/5 of 3/4 of 2/3 of 1/2 a dramma was given to a beggar by one from whom he asked an alms; tell me how many cowry shells the miser gave.