Two cowries from the Fijis

It continues to  rain heavily in Newburgh and so I think that another journey to the lagoons of the South Seas is called for.

I collected these 2 Cowrie shells from the coral reefs of Fiji back in 1970. The lower one is a Golden Cowrie Cypraea aurantium and the other  is a Humpback Cowrie Cypraea mauritiana. They are still as bright and as beautiful as the day that I picked them up.

The Golden Cowrie is by far the rarest of the two and was used as currency throughout the South Pacific. In the Fijis, they were worn by chiefs as a symbol of status and rank.