"Cowry" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Found a small cowry shell of remarkable beauty on dead coral in the Bay. At first sight it appeared as a brilliant scarlet boss on the brown coral, and upon touching it the mantle slowly parted and was withdrawn, revealing a shell ...
— My Tropic Isle • E J Banfield
... waited at a respectful distance, went on too. I suppose they must have desired the prestige of being attached to Our Persons. In the depths of the forest Billy succumbed to the temptation to bargain, and made her first trade. Her prize was a long water gourd strapped with leather and decorated with cowry shells. Our boys were completely scandalized at the price she paid for it, so I fear the wily savage got ahead ...
— The Land of Footprints • Stewart Edward White
... they still return, to the high abode of Miss Flaw. There was a porch at her door, both for shelter and shade, and it was covered with jasmine; but the charm of the place was a summer-house close by, containing a table, encrusted with cowry-shells, and seats from which one saw the distant waters of the bay. At the entrance to this grotto there was always set a 'snug elbow-chair', destined, I suppose, for the Rev. Mr. Flaw, or else left there in pious memory of him, since I cannot recollect ...
— Father and Son • Edmund Gosse
... Guinea savage wants to take passage aboard a Qantas airliner, what is the fare in cowrie shells? ...
— A World by the Tale • Gordon Randall Garrett
... up to the governor when they reach Swearah," urged one of the merchants, "and we may be ordered out of the country without receiving a single cowrie for all. Such has been done before. The good sheik here knows of an Arab merchant who was treated so. He lost all, while the governor got the ransom, and put it in ...
— The Boy Slaves • Mayne Reid
... delivered a lecture on the island and its remains. They all, he stated, belong to the second age of iron in Sweden, and consisted of implements of iron, ornaments of bronze, and animal bones; Kufic coins have been found, along with cowrie-shells, and silver bracelets. The number of animal bones met with is immense, more than fifty species being represented, and what is especially noteworthy, the marrow bones were all crushed or split, just as in the palaeeolithic ...
— The Christian Foundation, April, 1880
... dried pulp (often taken for twigs), threads of sacking and other foreign matter, it is very carefully sieved and sorted before passing on to the roasting shop. In this process curios are occasionally separated, such as palm kernels, cowrie shells, shea butter nuts, good luck seeds and "crab's eyes." The essential part of one type of machine (see illustration) which accomplishes this sorting is an inclined revolving cylinder of wire gauze along which the beans pass. ...
— Cocoa and Chocolate - Their History from Plantation to Consumer • Arthur W. Knapp
... things for counting than fingers or joints. Our own word 'calculate' means 'working with pebbles.' One African tribe calls forty 'ogodze,' which means 'string,' because they use cowrie-shells strung together by forties for counting. Their name for hundred is 'yha,' which means 'heap'—that is, a heap ...
— Chatterbox, 1906 • Various
... adopted because cowrie shells, which are used for counting, were strung by forties; and igba, 200, because a heap of 200 shells was five strings, and thus formed a convenient higher unit for reckoning. Proceeding in this curious manner,[106] they called 50 strings 1 afo or head; and to illustrate their ...
— The Number Concept - Its Origin and Development • Levi Leonard Conant
... the sacred symbol of the Mid[-e]wign, and may consist of any small white shell, though the one believed to be similar to the one mentioned in the above tradition resembles the cowrie, and the ceremonies of initiation as carried out in the Mid[-e]wiwin at this day are believed to be similar to those enacted by Minab[-o]zho and the Otter. It is admitted by all the Mid[-e] priests whom I have consulted that ...
— Seventh Annual Report • Various
... archery, Macgregor says is bad; one or two had spears, the Chief's spear was provided with a very long head, and ornamented with cowrie shells at the top of the haft; two women came afterwards, their necks loaded with cowries and bits of bones, but otherwise well clothed with the usual gowns, the outer one without sleeves and very wide arm holes. They were decorated with very coarse, large, ...
— Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and The - Neighbouring Countries • William Griffith
... the only common name in general use. When the timber was first introduced into Britain it was termed 'cowrie' or 'kowdie-pine'; but the name speedily fell into disuse, although it still appears as the common name in ...
— A Dictionary of Austral English • Edward Morris
... Kennedy McClure had been seen galloping eastward in frantic search of his carriage and horses. The former had been reported blown to flinders, and his two carefully matched horses killed by the bandits. So he was now riding in his shirt-sleeves, the cowrie shells at his watch fob clanging against the little bundle of keys he wore there. In his mind he was doing sums of which the main issues were, "What is the difference between the fifty pounds I have in hand and ...
— Patsy • S. R. Crockett
... Cucintana. Cudgel, Tartars' use of. Cuiju (Kwei-chau), province. Cuinet, Vital, on Turkman villages, on Mosul Kurds. Cuirbouly. Cuju. Cuncun (Han-Chung) province. Cunningham, General A. Cups, flying. Curds and Curdistan. Currency, copper token, in India, salt; leather; Cowrie, see Cowries. Currency, paper, in China, attempt to institute in Persia; alluded to. Current, strong south along East Coast of Africa. Currents, Cape of, or Corrientes. Curtains, Persian. Curzola Island, Genoese victory at, Polo's galley at; map of. Curzon, Lord, list ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa |
