Shells Spell "Sell"

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 124, 28 May 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

Shells Spell "Sell"

8y... A. W. B Powell

IN the earlier civilisations, and especially in prehistoric times, shellfish played a far more important role than they do with us to-day. In these enlightened modern times money rules supreme—yet the system is actually of very ancient origin. The spotted tropical cowry shells so often displayed as ornaments on mantelpiece*, represent man's first step towards a monetary system, superseding that of barter. It may have began with the Neolithic people in whose burial sites examples of Red Sea and Indian Ocean cowrys I have been found. These shells were cherished as symbols of good omen by the ancients, and in particular were used as regeneration charms.• They were also placed in graves to ensure the continuance of deceased's existence. Signifying not only life, but also resurrection. The ancient Egyptians often placed a cowry shell in the mouth of a deceased person, and they were also used as eyes for their mummies.

Gradually the collection of cowrys as charms resulted in the recognition of definite exchange equivalents for numbers of these shells. And this was really the beginning of our present monetary system. Cowry shell currency was used for thousands of years in India from whence it spread to Equatorial Africa, and to this day is used in parts of the interior. In Eastern Africa, when cowry shells were first brought into that two of the Red Sea cowrys were considered sufficient for a bridal dowry. Later as many as 2000 to 5000 were necessary, and to obtain them numbers of sheep and cattle had to be bartered.

The money-cowry is most abundant in the Indian Ocean, and is collected more particularly in the Maldive Islands, in Ceylon, along the Malabar Coast, Borneo, other East Indian Islands and along the East African Coast. It was formerly in familiar use in Bengal, where, though it required 3540 to make a rupee (2/), the annual importation was valued at about £30.000. In Western Africa it was. until past the middle of the nineteenth century, the usual tender. Tn the early part of the last eentni y an Englishman, resident in Bengal, paid for the erection of his bungalow entirely in cowry shells. The sum involved was 4000 rupees, then equal to £400 sterling. and the number of cowry shells used in the transaction was 16.000.000. There is no record of the cost of the cartage involved in transferring the money.

It is more than likely that our slang term "shelling-out" is a survival from the days when these cowry shells were regular currency. Two kinds of shell money were used by the North American Indians, "wampum" in the east end "allicochiek" in the west. Both were recognised as legal tender until long after European colonisation, and the wampum in particular was for many years used in all the local transactions connected with the fur industry and even in the matter of State taxes. Unfortunately there was no law ' forbidding anyone who wished to make > wampum, so with the advent of the ■ more efficient tools of the European, the

making of wampum was so facilitated that it quickly lost its value and by Ivi- it ceased to be recognised as lawful currency. Wampum consisted of .»t rings of worked cylindrical sections of rdioils usually cut from the clam, a shell very like our common so-called cockle. I ho l>cst grade of wampum was known «f» black wampum or wampum peak, and it was made from the small a reus of :;ii> ,lam shell that are stained dark purple. The early English traders \-.lined wampum peak at 1/6 per yard and the common white at M per yard. At one -la-e wampum peak was worth ■• |ht fathom. Allieoehick was the form of monev "*-od by the Californian and Alaskan Indians until quite late in la.-t oenturv. It c..n-i>ted of strings of small white dciitalium or tu-k r-hells. which were \oiued aivording to the smallest number "1 shells that when strum: together would measure a fathom. The value of allicochiek thus varied according to the -!-'•■• of the individual shells, the best money going 40 shells to the fathom, and in the early days of Western American colonisation by the whites, represented a value of ' £.',O. However, soon after the advent of the Europeans, blankets took the place of the monev in all trading transactions. Indians' Shell Cash At one time nearlv everv Pacific coast Indian had 10 lines" tattooed across the inside of his left arm. and in measuring shell money he took the string in his risht hand and drew it along his left arm. and if live shells reached" from his thumb nail to the uppermost tattoo mark, the five shells were worth the <-)uivalent of £o sterling. However, it K only one in about every 10.000 shells that is long enough to command this high price. With these Xorth American Indians shell money was supreme—wives, could be boujrht and even murders atoned for, provided sufficient wampum or allicochiek was at the command of the person concerned. In the Solomons. Xew Guinea and practically throughout Melanesia strings <*f shell money were the regular currency, definite lengths and" qualities having recognised values in the purchase of such items as wives, piss end even war canoes. Discs of shell are first roughly chipped and were then set in a depression in the end of a cylindrical stick so that the surfaces could be ground smooth on a flat stone. Next. each tiny disc was carefully drilled and threaded on a flexible thin stick, and in this form were ground on a flat stone until the roll was cylindrical, that is. each disc became a perfect circle. Finally the discs were threaded in lengths with colours often in alternate bands, thus producing a most, artistic effect. White discs were cut from a heavily ridsred bivalve, a species of Area, and "red from «n oyster-like shellfish known as Chama.

The Maori people had no monetary system, except po*sil>lv that represented liy .Greenstone which had a value and was obtainable naturallv onlv frr>m a few restricted localities. Mostly the barter system was the rule, enabling coastal people to exchange produets of the sea for those of the bush and inland waters.