Shells are employed for use and for ornament by savage—and even by civilised—tribes in all parts of the world. The natives of Fiji thread the large Turbo argyrostoma and crenulatus as weights at the edge of their nets, and also employ them as sinkers. A Cypraea tigris cut into two halves and placed round a stone, with two or three showy Oliva at the sides, is used as a bait for cuttles. Avicula margaritifera is cut into scrapers and knives by this and several other tribes. Breast ornaments of Chama, grouped with Solarium perspectivum and Terebra duplicata are common among the Fijians, who also mount the Avicula on a backing of whales’ teeth sawn in two, for the same purpose. The great Orange Cowry (Cypraea aurantiaca) is used as a badge of high rank among the chieftains. One of the most remarkable Fijian industries is the working of whales’ teeth to represent this cowry, as well as the commoner C. talpa, which is more easily imitated.
Among the Solomon islanders, cowries are used to ornament their shields on great field days, and split cowries are worn as a necklace, to represent human teeth. Small bunches of Terebellum subulatum are worn as earrings, and a large valve of Avicula is employed as a head ornament in the centre of a fillet. The same islanders ornament the raised prows of their canoes, as well as the inside of the stern-post, with a long row of single Natica.
The native Papuans employ shells for an immense variety of purposes. Circlets for the head are formed of rows of Nassa gibbosula, rubbed down till little but the mouth remains. Necklaces are worn which consist of strings of Oliva, young Avicula, Natica melanostoma, opercula of Turbo, and valves of a rich brown species of Cardium, pendent at the end of strings of the seeds known as Job’s tears. Struthiolaria is rubbed down until nothing but the mouth is left, and worn in strings round the neck. This is remarkable, since Struthiolaria is not a native Papuan shell, and indeed occurs no nearer than New Zealand. Sections of Melo are also worn as a breast ornament, dependent from a necklace of cornelian stones. Cypraea erosa is used to ornament drinking bowls, and Ovulum ovum is attached to the native drums, at the base of a bunch of cassowary feathers, as well as being fastened to the handle of a sago-beater.
In the same island, the great Turbo and Conus millepunctatus are ground down to form bracelets, which are worn on the biceps. The crimson lip of Strombus luhuanus is cut into beads and perforated for necklaces. Village elders are distinguished by a single Ovulum verrucosum, worn in the centre of the forehead. The thick lip of Cassis cornuta is ground down to form nose pieces, 4½ inches long. Fragments of a shell called Kaïma (probably valves of a large Spondylus) are worn suspended from the ears, with little wisps of hair twisted up and thrust through a hole in the centre. For trumpets, Cassis cornuta, Triton tritonis, and Ranella lampas are used, with a hole drilled as a mouthpiece in one of the upper whorls. Valves of Batissa, Unio, and Mytilus are used as knives for peeling yams. Spoons for scooping the white from the cocoa-nut are made from Avicula margaritifera. Melo diadema is used as a baler in the canoes.[207]
In the Sandwich Islands Melampus luteus is worn as a necklace, as well as in the Navigator Islands. A very striking necklace, in the latter group, is formed of the apices of a Nautilus, rubbed down to show the nacre. The New Zealanders use the green opercula of a Turbo, a small species of Venus, and Cypraea asellus to form the eyes of their idols. Fish-hooks are made throughout the Pacific of the shells of Avicula and Haliotis, and are sometimes strengthened by a backing made of the columella of Cypraea arabica. Small axe-heads are made from Terebra crenulata ground down (Woodlark I.), and larger forms are fashioned from the giant Tridacna (Fiji).
Shells are used to ornament the elaborate cloaks worn by the women of rank in the Indian tribes of South America. Specimens of Ampullaria, Orthalicus, Labyrinthus, and Bulimulus depend from the bottom and back of these garments, while great Bulimi, 6 inches long, are worn as a breast ornament, and at the end of a string of beads and teeth.[208]
The chank-shell (Turbinella rapa) is of especial interest from its connexion with the religion of the Hindoos. The god Vishnu is represented as holding this shell in his hand, and the sinistral form of it, which is excessively rare, is regarded with extraordinary veneration. The chank appears as a symbol on the coins of some of the ancient Indian Empires, and is still retained on the coinage of the Rajah of Travancore.
The chief fishery of the chank-shell is at Tuticorin, on the Gulf of Manaar, and is conducted during the N. E. monsoon, October-May. In 1885–86 as many as 332,000 specimens were obtained, the net amount realised being nearly Rs.24,000. In former days the trade was much more lucrative, 4 or 5 millions of specimens being frequently shipped. The government of Ceylon used to receive £4000 a year for licenses to fish, but now the trade is free. The shells are brought up by divers from 2 or 3 fathoms of water. In 1887 a sinistral specimen was found at Jaffna, which sold for Rs.700.[209] Nearly all the shells are sent to Dacca, where they are sliced into bangles and anklets to be worn by the Hindoo women.
Perhaps the most important industry which deals only with the shells of Mollusca is that connected with the ‘pearl-oyster.’ The history of the trade forms a small literature in itself. It must be sufficient here to note that the species in question is not an ‘oyster,’ properly so called, but an Avicula (margaritifera Lam.). The ‘mother-of-pearl,’ which is extensively employed for the manufacture of buttons, studs, knife-handles, fans, card-cases, brooches, boxes, and every kind of inlaid work, is the internal nacreous laminae of the shell of this species. The most important fisheries are those of the Am Islands, the Soo-loo Archipelago, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, Queensland, and the Pearl Islands in the Bay of Panama. The shell also occurs in several of the groups of the South Pacific—the Paumotu, Gambier and Navigator Islands, Tahiti being the centre of the trade—and also on the coasts of Lower California.[210]
Pearls are the result of a disease in the animal of this species of Avicula and probably in all other species within which they occur. When the Avicula is large, well formed, and with ample space for individual development, pearls scarcely occur at all, but when the shells are crowded together, and become humped and distorted, as well as affording cover for all kinds of marine worms and parasitic creatures, then pearls are sure to be found. Pearls of inferior value and size are also produced by Placuna placenta, many species of Pinna, the great Tridacna, the common Ostrea edulis, and several other marine bivalves. They are not uncommon in Unio and Anodonta, and the common Margaritana margaritifera of our rapid streams is still said to be collected, in some parts of Wales, for the purpose of extracting its small ‘seed-pearls.’ Pink pearls are obtained from the giant conch-shell of the West Indies (Strombus gigas), as well as from certain Turbinella.