That was the message in the gunfire that had erupted the moment the cowries were cast.
She had heard the verses for the cowries once before, years ago in Brazil.
The men of the Yoruba always claimed the powers of the cowries were too great for any save a true babalawo, and no woman would ever be permitted to be that.
Ogun, the god of war, had spoken--not through the pattern in the cowries on a tray, but with his own voice.
What was Ogun's purpose in answering the cowries this way?
Abed sent over Manyuema to buy slaves for him and got a pretty woman for 300 cowries and a hundred strings of beads; she can be sold again to an Arab for much more in ivory.
Pangáyù ug sigay sa ímung sangga ug mapildi ka, Ask for some more cowriesfrom your partner if you lose.
Their breast-cloths are profusely ornamented with needle-work embroidery and small pieces of glass sewn into them, and are tied behind with cords of many colours whose ends are decorated with cowries and beads.
After the ceremony the couple gamble with seven cowries and seven pieces of turmeric.
They have skirts, and separate short cloths drawn across the shoulders according to the northern fashion, usually red or green in colour, and along the skirt-borders double lines of cowries are sewn.
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.
Ahirs decorated with cowries for the Stick Dance at Diwali 18 33.
When she is ten years old a Labhana girl is given two small bundles containing a nut, some cowries and rice, which are knotted to two corners of the dupatta or shoulder-cloth and hung over the shoulder, one in front and one behind.
This is known as Anthi, and has a number of cowries at the end.
Some rice, a pice coin, 21 cowriesand 21 pieces of turmeric are placed in the hole in which the marriage post is erected.
The jhumri or tassel referred to above is a tassel adorned with cowries and hung from the top of the cradle so that the child may keep his eyes on it while the cradle is being rocked.
It is surmounted by a brass cone and adorned with mango-leaves, cowries and a piece of red cloth, and with figures of Rama and Lakshman.
The widow next walks round the pyre seven times, as she did round the marriage-post at her wedding, strewing parched rice and cowries as she goes, which the spectators catch and keep under the belief that they will cure diseases.
Pachala or silk embroidery adorned with tassels and cowriesis also worn as an anklet by women.
Cowries were here used as coins, though somewhat cumbersome, as twenty were worth only a halfpenny; thus, in paying a pound sterling, nine thousand six hundred shells had to be counted out.
The Chief's son wore a black, narrow band round his head, ornamented behind with a few cowries and bone ornaments.
Cowries are small shells, the medium of exchange with the natives: their present value is about one shilling per thousand.
I was coming up to you with a cargo of cowries and dry goods worth L450, when I was attacked from all quarters by the natives of Hyammah off the fourth island from Sunday Island (eighty-four miles from the mouth of the Nun).
Lieutenant Garnier found cowries nowhere in use north of Luang Prabang; and among the Kakhyens in Western Yun nan these shells are used only for ornament.
Klaproth states that Yun-nan is the only country of China in whichcowries had continued in use, though in ancient times they were more generally diffused.
Fryer, in 1673, says that cowries were brought to Surat "from Siam and the Philippine Islands.
According to him 80 cowries were equivalent to 6 cash, or a half-penny.
Robert Lindsay went as Resident and Collector to Silhet about 1778, cowries constituted nearly the whole currency of the Province.
The Stoltzfoos stake of silver and gold cowries was wasting away.
He counted out the hoard of golden cowries he'd been loaned as grubstake, did some arithmetic, and allowed his wife to pour him a second cup of coffee for the road.
He was persuaded to lay in a supply of seed-yams, guaranteeing a crop that would bring bronze cowries next fall in Datura, the price of next year's oil and cloth and tools.
The cowries held by the suite; (b) different kinds of deer.
On either side he had white cowries ceaselessly waved by his women; and he sat on a couch white as a wild goose, and bright as a fair island, as if he were the heavenly elephant on the water of Ganges.
He also sent with us an escort of a horseman and five footmen, with sword and spear, as a guard of honor, sending us cowries to pay the expenses.
It was most important that I should discover the exact route by which the cowries arrived from the south, as it would be my guide to that direction.
The 'white men' must be Arab traders who bringcowries from Zanzibar.
Cowries are small shells imported from the Eastern isles, which pass in India as current coin, their value fluctuating with the price of corn, from, sixty to ninety for one pice.
The foreboding, however, grew so strong that he got up to investigate, and when he opened the door of the room where the Mahadei had been imprisoned he found it empty, save for a kitten with a string of cowries fastened to its feet.
Mr. Park sent me on shore with forty thousand cowries to buy provisions.
From the ninth century on, we have many references in the Arabic authors to the cowries in Asia and Africa" (page 208).
Shell-money was first popularized on Long Island by the Dutch, who, as we are informed, imported cowries and aggry beads from the East to sell them to the Guinea-merchants.
The cowries are found at a little distance from the shore, generally in clefts of the rocky bottoms; but sometimes they bury themselves in the sand.
The young cowries are thin, conical, elongated; with conspicuous spiral, and large openings.
Just as cowries circulate in the East Indies, so cacao nuts, in Central America and Yucatan, form a perfectly recognized and probably an ancient fractional money.
Footnote 55: Cowries are called El Uda, and are sold in Santa Cruz and in South Barbary, at twenty Mexico dollars per quintal.
Cowries in the least damaged are bad coin, and go for less than those that are perfect.
The tree then told the old woman to go with the cowries to the city and buy some khai.
But the merchant has no wish to be shod just then, and demands a row of cowries for his little pots: "You have merely to take a few drops of this to see how delicious it is," he urges in a persuasive tone.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "cowries" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
