Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/363

Rh talked about. This has all been fully described by Mr. Elworthy in his book upon the Evil Eye.

The types, however, to which my paper specially refers are worn by the races of various parts of the African continent and the islands of the South Pacific. They are undoubtedly charms and not mere ornaments, for it is a most significant fact that an object possessing the mystic power in the eyes of one tribe has no value or meaning at all with the people of even a neighbouring part of the country or of an adjacent island.

As will be seen from the specimens before you, a considerable number of forms are symbolised; I am speaking now of the original forms selected, altered, or adapted by the natives. Large discs are cut from the great shells of the Tridacna; the apex of the shell of the genus Conus is cut so as to show the spiral of the whorl (No. 10). Both these forms seem to suggest the solar disc, the spiral pattern of the latter suggesting rotary motion. The teeth and claws of certain animals, besides the symbolism already alluded to, are, I consider, worn as a protection against the very animals represented by these teeth and claws, as in the case of the menagerie attendants already referred to. The human teeth worn so abundantly by certain tribes in the neighbourhood of Ashanti are, in my opinion, so worn with the idea of absorbing the bravery of the slain foe by the wearer. The same principle is found to exist in the case of cannibalism. The fish-charm (No. 17) is curiously interesting, as also are the arrow, or spear, heads. This latter object has always apparently been regarded as of mystic origin by those who did not understand what it was; usually under the titles of "Elf-darts" and "Thunderbolts," in Europe. It is, however, curious to find natives of Africa holding this superstition, as the knowledge of iron in a crude form seems to have been of great antiquity, and the African native was using a native-made many-barbed arrow when the North American