Cowries

Table 6.2 provides a view of the decreasing value of cowries from the Yuan period to the end of the Ming Dynasty. ❋ Unknown (2008)

In 1437, the Ming court decided to move cowries from the Nanjing treasury to Yunnan to pay salary to officials. 59 Three years later, the emperor ordered a shipment of 550,000 jin of cowries to Yunnan, again for salaries. 60 It should be pointed out that not all people liked to pay cowries to the state. ❋ Unknown (2008)

Sometimes the loaner borrowed silver, but paid cowries as interest; other times, he borrowed and repaid in cowries. 58 ❋ Unknown (2008)

As the cowries were a form of currency they were probably held sacred, and hence sewn on to clothes as a charm, just as gold and silver are used for ornaments. ❋ R. V. Russell (N/A)

The "Buyapart," valued at twenty-five cents, is a piece of cloth four inches square, covered thickly over with the small shells called cowries, sewed on. ❋ Horatio Bridge (1849)

Thus it may have been gold, or silver, or copper, or a species of beautiful shells called cowries, or even a sort of mat called makutes, as in Congo; or ingots of iron, as in Senegal; or Negro slaves, as on the Guinea ❋ Unknown (1790)

It was highly probable, too, that among the victims about to be transported were many who had been his own subjects; for these African potentates do not scruple to make merchandise of their own people, when cash or "cowries" run short, and their enemies have been too strong to be captured. ❋ Mayne Reid (1850)

Meanwhile I hunted for less time-consuming cowries, and raced around literally breathless with excitement for the entire time. ❋ Unknown (2009)

One night I was out fishing in the lagoon with Oti, the man who had been mulcted of the cowries. ❋ Unknown (2010)

One day I happened to speak of my disappointment in failing to trade for a beautiful pair of orange cowries. ❋ Unknown (2010)

The charm was a bracelet made of roots and a stalk woven together with ropes and cowries. ❋ Karen Palmer (2010)

Then he picked out the four cowries, whispered to them, and had me spread those. ❋ Karen Palmer (2010)

It was hard to take in, a visual feast of sticks and calabashes, rags and cowries and paint. ❋ Karen Palmer (2010)

He whispered to them, chanted to them, threw them, picked them up again, placed them square, ran his fingers over the spill of divination tools, and then threw the four cowries again. ❋ Karen Palmer (2010)

Inside the calabash, a bowl made from a dried gourd, was a mixture: fingernails, hair, bees, cowries, blood and many other strange things. ❋ Karen Palmer (2010)

Indeed, significant discoveries such as thousands of cowries and the seal of Prince Dian (dianwangzhiyin) illustrate Yunnan's close interactions with its neighbors. ❋ Unknown (2008)

They started making copies of cowries out of lumps of metal, usually bronze or copper or another nonprecious metal. ❋ Jean Chatzky (2010)

He scooped and shook the cowries and buttons and seeds dozens of times, each time telling me something new. ❋ Karen Palmer (2010)