Shell Deities and Early Trade
Early Culture and Early Races--Did Civilization originate in
Europe?--An Important Clue--Trade in Shells between Red Sea
and Italy--Traces of Early Trade in Central Europe--Religious
Value of Personal Ornaments--Importance of Shell Lore--Links
between Far East and Europe--Shell Deities--A Hebridean Shell
Goddess--"Milk of Wisdom"--Ancient Goddesses as Providers of
Food--Gaelic "Spirit Shell" and Japanese "God Body"--Influence
of Deities in Jewels, &c.--A Shakespearean Reference--Shells
in Crô-Magnon Graves--Early Sacrifices--Hand Colours in
Palæolithic Caves--Finger Lore and "Hand Spells".
When the question is asked, "Whence came the Crô-Magnon people of
the Aurignacian phase of culture?" the answer usually given is,
"Somewhere in the East". The distribution of the Aurignacian sites
indicates that the new-comers entered south-western France by way of
Italy--that is, across the Italian land-bridge from North Africa. Of
special significance in this connection is the fact that Aurignacian
culture persisted for the longest period of time in Italy. The
tallest Crô-Magnons appear to have inhabited south-eastern France
and the western shores of Italy. "It is probable", says Osborn,
referring to the men six feet four and a half inches in height, "that
in the genial climate of the Riviera these men obtained their finest
development; the country was admirably protected from the cold winds
of the north, refuges were abundant, and game by no means scarce, to
judge from the quantity of animal bones found in the caves. Under
such conditions of life the race enjoyed a fine physical development
and dispersed widely."[24]
[24] _Men of the Old Stone Age_, pp. 297-8.
It does not follow, however, that the tall people originated
Aurignacian culture. As has been indicated, the stumpy people
represented by Combe-Capelle skeletons were likewise exponents of
it. "It must not be assumed", as Elliot Smith reminds us, "that the
Aurignacian culture was necessarily invented by the same people who
introduced it into Europe, and whose remains were associated with
it ... for any culture can be transmitted to an alien people, even
when it has not been adopted by many branches of the race which was
responsible for its invention, just as gas illumination, oil lamps,
and even candles are still in current use by the people who invented
the electric light, which has been widely adopted by many foreign
peoples. This elementary consideration is so often ignored that it
is necessary thus to emphasize it, because it is essential for any
proper understanding of the history of early civilization."[25]
[25] Primitive Man (_Proceedings of the British Academy_, Vol.
VII).
No trace of Aurignacian culture has, so far, been found outside
Europe. "May it not, therefore," it may be asked, "have originated
in Italy or France?" In absence of direct evidence, this possibility
might be admitted. But an important discovery has been made at
Grimaldi in La Grotte des Enfants (the "grotto of infants"--so called
because of the discovery there of the skeletons of young Crô-Magnon
children). Among the shells used as amulets by those who used the
grotto as a sepulchre was one (_Cassis rufa_) that had been carried
either by a migrating folk, or by traders, along the North African
coast and through Italy from some south-western Asian beach. The find
has been recorded by Professor Marcellin Boule.[26]
[26] _Les Grottes de Grimaldi (Baousse-Rousse)_, Tome I, fasc.
II--_Géologie et Paléontologie_ (Monaco, 1906), p. 123.
In a footnote, G. Dollfus writes:
"_Cassis rufa, L._, an Indian ocean shell, is represented in
the collection at Monaco by two fragments; one was found in the
lower habitation level D, the other is probably of the same
origin. The presence of this shell is extraordinary, as it has
no analogue in the Mediterranean, neither recent nor fossil;
there exists no species in the North Atlantic or off Senegal
with which it could be confounded. The fragments have traces of
the reddish colour preserved, and are not fossil; one of them
presents a notch which has determined a hole that seems to have
been made intentionally. The species has not yet been found in
the Gulf of Suez nor in the raised beaches of the Isthmus. M.
Jousseaume has found it in the Gulf of Tadjoura at Aden, but it
has not yet been encountered in the Red Sea nor in the raised
beaches of that region. The common habitat of _Cassis rufa_ is
Socotra, besides the Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, New
Caledonia, and perhaps Tahiti. The fragments discovered at
Mentone have therefore been brought from a great distance at a
very ancient epoch by prehistoric man."
After the Crô-Magnon peoples had spread into Western and Central
Europe they imported shells from the Mediterranean. At Laugerie
Basse in the Dordogne, for instance, a necklace of pierced shells
from the Mediterranean was found in association with a skeleton.
Atlantic shells could have been obtained from a nearer sea-shore.
It may be that the Rhone valley, which later became a well-known
trade route, was utilized at an exceedingly remote period, and that
cultural influences occasionally "flowed" along it. "Prehistoric man"
had acquired some experience as a trader even during the "hunting
period", and he had formulated definite religious beliefs.
It has been the habit of some archæologists to refer to shell and
other necklaces, &c., as "personal ornaments". The late Dr. Robert
Munro wrote in this connection:
"We have no knowledge of any phase of humanity in which the
love of personal ornament does not play an important part in
the life of the individual. The savage of the present day,
who paints or tattoos his body, and adorns it with shells,
feathers, teeth, and trinkets made of the more gaudy materials
at his disposal, may be accepted as on a parallel with the
Neolithic people of Europe.... Teeth are often perforated
and used as pendants, especially the canines of carnivorous
animals, but such ornaments are not peculiar to Neolithic
times, as they were equally prevalent among the later
Palæolithic races of Europe."[27]
[27] _Prehistoric Britain_, pp. 142-3.
Modern savages have very definite reasons for wearing the so-called
"ornaments", and for painting and tattooing their bodies. They
believe that the shells, teeth, &c., afford them protection, and
bring them luck. Earpiercing, distending the lobe of the ear,
disfiguring the body, the pointing, blackening, or knocking out
of teeth, are all practices that have a religious significance.
Even such a highly civilized people as the Chinese perpetuate, in
their funerary ceremonies, customs that can be traced back to an
exceedingly remote period in the history of mankind. It is not due to
"love of personal ornament" that they place cowries, jade, gold, &c.,
in the mouth of the dead, but because they believe that by so doing
the body is protected, and given a new lease of life. The Far Eastern
belief that an elixir of ground oyster shells will prolong life in
the next world is evidently a relic of early shell lore. Certain
deities are associated with certain shells. Some deities have, like
snails, shells for "houses"; others issue at birth from shells. The
goddess Venus (Aphrodite) springs from the froth of the sea, and is
lifted up by Tritons on a shell; she wears a love-girdle. Hathor, the
Egyptian Venus, had originally a love-girdle of shells. She appears
to have originated as the personification of a shell, and afterwards
to have personified the pearl within the shell. In early Egyptian
graves the shell-amulets have been found in thousands. The importance
of shell lore in ancient religious systems has been emphasized by
Mr. J. Wilfrid Jackson in his _Shells as Evidence of the Migrations
of Early Culture_.[28] He shows why the cowry and snail shells were
worn as amulets and charms, and why men were impelled "to search
for them far and wide and often at great peril". "The murmur of the
shell was the voice of the god, and the trumpet made of a shell
became an important instrument in initiation ceremonies and in temple
worship." Shells protected wearers against evil, including the evil
eye. In like manner protection was afforded by the teeth and claws
of carnivorous animals. In Asia and Africa the belief that tigers,
lions, &c., will not injure those who are thus protected is still
quite widespread.
[28] London, 1917.
[Illustration: Necklace of Sea Shells, from the cave of
Crô-Magnon. (After E. Lartet.)]
It cannot have been merely for love of personal ornaments that the
Crô-Magnons of southern France imported Indian Ocean shells, and
those of Central and Western Europe created a trade in Mediterranean
shells. Like the ancient inhabitants of the Nile Valley who in
remote pre-dynastic times imported shells, not only from the
Mediterranean but from the Red Sea, along a long and dangerous
desert trade-route, they evidently had imparted to shells a definite
religious significance. The "luck-girdle" of snail-shells worn by
the "Red Man of Paviland" has, therefore, an interesting history.
When the Crô-Magnons reached Britain they brought with them not
only implements invented and developed elsewhere, but a heritage
of religious beliefs connected with shell ornaments and with the
red earth with which the corpse was smeared when laid in its last
resting-place.
The ancient religious beliefs connected with shells appear to have
spread far and wide. Traces of them still survive in districts
far separated from one another and from the area of origin--the
borderlands of Asia and Africa. In Japanese mythology a young god,
Ohonamochie--a sort of male Cinderella--is slain by his jealous
brothers. His mother makes appeal to a sky deity who sends to her aid
the two goddesses Princess Cockleshell and Princess Clam. Princess
Cockleshell burns and grinds her shell, and with water provided by
Princess Clam prepares an elixir called "nurse's milk" or "mother's
milk". As soon as this "milk" is smeared over the young god, he is
restored to life. In the Hebrides it is still the custom of mothers
to burn and grind the cockle-shell to prepare a lime-water for
children who suffer from what in Gaelic is called "wasting". In
North America shells of _Unio_ were placed in the graves of Red
Indians "as food for the dead during the journey to the land of
spirits". The pearls were used in India as medicines. "The burnt
powder of the gems, if taken with water, cures hæmorrhages, prevents
evil spirits working mischief in men's minds, cures lunacy and all
mental diseases, jaundice, &c.... Rubbed over the body with other
medicines it cures leprosy and all skin diseases."[29] The ancient
Cretans, whose culture was carried into Asia and through Europe by
their enterprising sea-and-land traders and prospectors, attached
great importance to the cockle-shell which they connected with their
mother goddess, the source of all life and the giver of medicines
and food. Sir Arthur Evans found a large number of cockle-shells,
some in Faeince, in the shrine of the serpent goddess in the ruins
of the Palace of Knossos. The fact that the Cretans made artificial
cockle-shells is of special interest, especially when we find that in
Egypt the earliest use to which gold was put was in the manufacture
of models of snail-shells in a necklace.[30] In different countries
cowrie shells were similarly imitated in stone, ivory, and metal.[31]
[29] _Shells as Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture_, pp.
84-91.
[30] G. A. Reisner. _Early Dynastic Cemeteries of Naga-ed-Der_,
Vol. I, 1908, Plates 6 and 7.
[31] Jackson's _Shells_, pp. 128, 174, 176, 178.
Shells were thought to impart vitality and give protection, not only
to human beings, but even to the plots of the earliest florists
and agriculturists. "Mary, Mary, quite contrairie", who in the
nursery rhyme has in her garden "cockle-shells all in row", was
perpetuating an ancient custom. The cockle-shell is still favoured
by conservative villagers, and may be seen in their garden plots and
in graveyards. Shells placed at cottage doors, on window-sills, and
round fire-places are supposed to bring luck and give security, like
the horse-shoe on the door.
The mother goddess, remembered as the fairy queen, is still
connected with shells in Hebridean folk-lore. A Gaelic poet refers
to the goddess as "the maiden queen of wisdom who dwelt in the
beauteous bower of the single tree where she could see the whole
world and where no fool could see her beauty". She lamented the
lack of wisdom among women, and invited them to her knoll. When
they were assembled there the goddess appeared, holding in her hand
the _copan Moire_ ("Cup of Mary"), as the blue-eyed limpet shell is
called. The shell contained "the ais (milk) of wisdom", which she
gave to all who sought it. "Many", we are told, "came to the knoll
too late, and there was no wisdom left for them."[32] A Gaelic poet
says the "maiden queen" was attired in emerald green, silver, and
mother-of-pearl.
[32] Dr. Alexander Carmichael, _Carmina Gadeiica_, Vol. II,
pp.247 _et seq._ Mr. Wilfrid Jackson, author of _Shells as
Evidence of the Migrations of Early Culture_, tells me that the
"blue-eyed limpet" is our common limpet--_Patella vulgata_--the
Lepas, Patelle, Jambe, OEil de boue, Bernicle, or Flie of the
French. In Cornwall it is the "Crogan", the "Bornigan", and
the "Brennick". It is "flither" of the English, "flia" of the
Faroese, and "lapa" of the Portuguese. A Cornish giant was once,
according to a folk-tale, set to perform the hopeless task of
emptying a pool with a single limpet which had a hole in it.
Limpets are found in early British graves and in the "kitchen
middens". They are met with in abundance in cromlechs, on the
Channel Isles and in Brittany, covering the bones and the skulls
of the dead. Mr. Jackson thinks they were used like cowries for
vitalizing and protecting the dead.
Here a particular shell is used by an old goddess for a specific
purpose. She imparts knowledge by providing a magic drink referred to
as "milk". The question arises, however, if a deity of this kind was
known in early times. Did the Crô-Magnons of the Aurignacian stage of
culture conceive of a god or goddess in human form who nourished her
human children and instructed them as do human mothers? The figure
of a woman, holding in her hand a horn which appears to have been
used for drinking from, is of special interest in this connection. As
will be shown, the Hebridean "maiden" links with other milk-providing
deities.
The earliest religious writings in the world are the Pyramid Texts
of ancient Egypt which, as Professor Breasted so finely says,
"vaguely disclose to us a vanished world of thought and speech". They
abound "in allusions to lost myths, to customs and usages long since
ended". Withal, they reflect the physical conditions of a particular
area--the Nile Valley, in which the sun and the river are two
outstanding natural features. There was, however, a special religious
reason for connecting the sun and the river.
In these old Pyramid Texts are survivals from a period apparently
as ancient as that of early Aurignacian civilization in Europe,
and perhaps, as the clue afforded by the Indian shell found in the
Grimaldi cave, not unconnected with it. The mother goddess, for
instance, is prayed to so that she may suckle the soul of the dead
Pharaoh as a mother suckles her child and never wean him.[33] Milk
was thus the elixir of life, and as the mother goddess of Egypt is
found to have been identified with the cowrie--indeed to have been
the spirit or personification of the shell--the connection between
shells and milk may have obtained even in Aurignacian times in
south-western Europe. That the mother goddess of Crô-Magnons had a
human form is suggested by the representations of mothers which have
been brought to light. An Aurignacian statuette of limestone found
in the cave of Willendorf, Lower Austria, has been called the "Venus
of Willendorf". She is very corpulent--apparently because she was
regarded as a giver of life. Other statues of like character have
been unearthed near Mentone, and they have a striking resemblance
to the figurines of fat women found in the pre-dynastic graves
of Egypt and in Crete and Malta. The bas-relief of the fat woman
sculptured on a boulder inside the Aurignacian shelter of Laussel may
similarly have been a goddess. In her right hand she holds a bison's
horn--perhaps a drinking horn containing an elixir. Traces of red
colouring remain on the body. A notable fact about these mysterious
female forms is that the heads are formal, the features being
scarcely, if at all, indicated.
[33] Breasted, _Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt_, p. 130.
Even if no such "idols" had been found, it does not follow that
the early people had no ideas about supernatural beings. There are
references in Gaelic to the _coich anama_ (the "spirit case", or
"soul shell", or "soul husk"). In Japan, which has a particularly
rich and voluminous mythology, there are no idols in Shinto temples.
A deity is symbolized by the _shintai_ (God body), which may be a
mirror, a weapon, or a round stone, a jewel or a pearl. A pearl is
a _tama_; so is a precious stone, a crystal, a bit of worked jade,
or a necklace of jewels, ivory, artificial beads, &c. The soul of
a supernatural being is called _mi-tama--mi_ being now a honorific
prefix, but originally signifying a water serpent (dragon god). The
shells, of which ancient deities were personifications, may well have
been to the Crô-Magnons pretty much what a _tama_ is to the Japanese,
and what magic crystals were to mediæval Europeans who used them for
magical purposes. It may have been believed that in the shells, green
stones, and crystals remained the influence of deities as the power
of beasts of prey remained in their teeth and claws. The ear-rings
and other Pagan ornaments which Jacob buried with Laban's idols
under the oak at Shechem were similarly supposed to be god bodies or
coagulated forms of "life substance". All idols were temporary or
permanent bodies of deities, and idols were not necessarily large.
It would seem to be a reasonable conclusion that all the so-called
ornaments found in ancient graves were supposed to have had an
intimate connection with the supernatural beings who gave origin to
and sustained life. These ornaments, or charms, or amulets, imparted
vitality to human beings, because they were regarded as the substance
of life itself. The red jasper worn in the waist girdles of the
ancient Egyptians was reputed, as has been stated, to be a coagulated
drop of the blood of the mother goddess Isis. Blood was the essence
of life.
The red woman or goddess of the Laussel shelter was probably coloured
so as to emphasize her vitalizing attributes; the red colour animated
the image.
An interesting reference in Shakespeare's _Hamlet_ to ancient
burial customs may here be quoted, because it throws light on the
problem under discussion. When Ophelia's body is carried into
the graveyard[34] one of the priests says that as "her death was
doubtful" she should have been buried in "ground unsanctified"--that
is, among the suicides and murderers. Having taken her own life, she
was unworthy of Christian burial, and should be buried in accordance
with Pagan customs. In all our old churchyards the takers of life
were interred on the north side, and apparently in Shakespeare's
day traditional Pagan rites were observed in the burials of those
regarded as Pagans. The priest in _Hamlet_, therefore, says of
Ophelia:
She should in ground unsanctified have lodged
Till the last trumpet; _for charitable prayers,
Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her_.
[34] _Hamlet_, V. i.
There are no shards (fragments of pottery) in the Crô-Magnon graves,
but flints and pebbles mingle with shells, teeth, and other charms
and amulets. Vast numbers of perforated shells have been found in the
burial caves near Mentone. In one case the shells are so numerous
that they seem to have formed a sort of burial mantle. "Similarly,"
says Professor Osborn, describing another of these finds, "the female
skeleton was enveloped in a bed of shells not perforated; the legs
were extended, while the arms were stretched beside the body; there
were a few pierced shells and a few bits of silex. One of the large
male skeletons of the same grotto had the lower limbs extended,
the upper limbs folded, and was decorated with a gorget and crown
of perforated shells; the head rested on a block of red stone." In
another case "heavy stones protected the body from disturbance; the
head was decorated with a circle of perforated shells _coloured in
red_, and implements of various types were carefully placed on the
forehead and chest". The body of the Combe-Capelle man "was decorated
with a necklace of perforated shells and surrounded with a great
number of fine Aurignacian flints. It appears", adds Osborn, "that
in all the numerous burials of these grottos of Aurignacian age and
industry of the Crô-Magnon race we have the burial standards which
prevailed in western Europe at this time."[35]
[35] _Men of the Old Stone Age_, pp.304-5.
It has been suggested by one of the British archæologists that the
necklaces of perforated cowrie shells and the red pigment found
among the remains of early man in Britain were used by children.
This theory does not accord with the evidence afforded by the
Grimaldi caves, in which the infant skeletons are neither coloured
nor decorated. Occasionally, however, the children were interred in
burial mantles of small perforated shells, while female adults were
sometimes placed in beds of unperforated shells. Shells have been
found in early British graves. These include _Nerita litoralis_, and
even _Patella vulgata_, the common limpet. Holes were rubbed in them
so that they might be strung together. In a megalithic cist unearthed
in Phoenix Park, Dublin, in 1838, two male skeletons had each beside
them perforated shells (_Nerita litoralis_). During the construction
of the Edinburgh and Granton railway there was found beside a
skeleton in a stone cist a quantity of cockle-shell rings. Two dozen
perforated oyster-shells were found in a single Orkney cist. Many
other examples of this kind could be referred to.[36]
[36] A Red Sea cowry shell (_Cyproea minor_) found on the site of
Hurstbourne station (L. & S. W. Railway, main line) in Hampshire,
was associated with "Early Iron Age" artifacts. (Paper read by J.
R. le B. Tomlin at meeting of Linnæan Society, June 14, 1921.)
In the Crô-Magnon caverns are imprints of human hands which had been
laid on rock and then dusted round with coloured earth. In a number
of cases it is shown that one or more finger joints of the left hand
had been cut off.
The practice of finger mutilation among Bushman, Australian, and Red
Indian tribes, is associated with burial customs and the ravages
of disease. A Bushman woman may cut off a joint of one of her
fingers when a near relative is about to die. Red Indians cut off
finger-joints when burying their dead during a pestilence, so as
"to cut off deaths"; they sacrificed a part of the body to save the
whole. In Australia finger mutilation is occasionally practised.
Highland Gaelic stories tell of heroes who lie asleep to gather power
which will enable them to combat with monsters or fierce enemies.
Heroines awake them by cutting off a finger joint, a part of the ear,
or a portion of skin from the scalp.[37]
[37] For references see my _Myths of Crete and Pre-Hellenic
Europe_, pp.30-31.
The colours used in drawings of hands in Palæolithic caves are black,
white, red, and yellow, as the Abbé Breuil has noted. In Spain and
India, the hand prints are supposed to protect dwellings from evil
influences. Horse-shoes, holly with berries, various plants, shells,
&c, are used for a like purpose among those who in our native land
perpetuate ancient customs.
The Arabs have a custom of suspending figures of an open hand from
the necks of their children, and the Turks and Moors paint hands upon
their ships and houses, "as an antidote and counter charm to an evil
eye; for five is with them an unlucky number; and 'five (fingers,
perhaps) in your eyes' is their proverb of cursing and defiance". In
Portugal the hand spell is called the _figa_. Southey suggests that
our common phrase "a fig for him" was derived from the name of the
Portuguese hand amulet.[38]
[38] Notes to _Thalaba_, Book V, Canto 36.
"The figo for thy friendship" is an interesting reference by
Shakespeare.[39] Fig or figo is probably from _fico_, a snap of
the fingers, which in French is _faire la figue_, and in Italian
_far le fiche_. Finger snapping had no doubt originally a magical
significance.
[39] _Henry V_, V, iii, 6.