COWRY

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 351 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: COR-CRE

COWRY , the popular name of the shells of the Cypraeida, a family of mollusks. Upwards of too species are recognized, and they are widely distributed over the worldtheir habitat being the shallow water along the sea-shore. The best known is the money cowry or Cypraea moneta, a small shell about half an inch in length,

white

and straw-coloured without and blue within, which derives its distinctive name from the fact that in various countries it has been employed as a kind of currency. (See SHELL-MONEY.) In Africa among those tribes, such as the Niam-Niam, who do not recognize their monetary value, the shells are in demand as fashionable decorations, just as in Germany they were in use as an

ornament

ORNAMENT (Lat. ornare, to adorn)

for horses'

harness

HARNESS (from O. Fr. harneis or harnois; the ultimate origin is obscure; the Celtic origin which connects it with the Welsh haiarn, iron, has phonetic and other difficulties; the French is the origin of the Span. arnes, and Ger. Harnisch)

, and were popular enough to acquire several native names, such as Brustharnisch or breastplates, and Otterkdpfchen or little adders' heads. Besides the Cypraea moneta various species are employed in this decorative use. The Cypraea aurora is a mark of chieftain-ship among the natives of the Friendly Islands; the Cypraea annulus is. a favourite with the Asiatic islanders; and several of the larger kinds have been used in Europe for the carving of cameos. The tiger cowry, Cypraea

tigris

TIGRIS (Old Persian Tigrd, Diklat of the cuneiform inscriptions, Hiddekel of the Old Testament, Diglath of the
Targum
- TARGUM
, Digla of the
Arabs
- ARABS
)

, so well known as a mantelpiece

ornament

ORNAMENT (Lat. ornare, to adorn)

in England and America, is commonly used by the natives of the Sandwich Islands to sink their nets; and they have also an ingenious plan of cementing portions of several shells into a smooth

oval

OVAL (Lat. ovum, egg)

ball which they then employ as a bait to catch the cuttle-fish. While the species already mentioned occur in myriads in their respective habitats, the Cypraea princeps and the Cypraea umbilicata are extremely rare.
COW-TREE, or MILK-TREE, Brosimum Galactodendron (natural order Moraceae), a native of

Venezuela

VENEZUELA

. As in other members of the order, the

stem

STEM (O. Eng. staefn, stemn, cf. Du. stain, Ger. Stamm, &c., probably related to " staff ")

contains a milky latex, which flows out in considerable quantities when a notch is cut in it. The " milk " is sweet and pleasant tasting. Another species, B. Alicastrum, the bread-nut tree, a native of central America and Jamaica, bears a fruit which is cooked and eaten. The bread-fruit (Artocarpus) is an allied genus of the same natural order.

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