[146] Strabo, 146 sq.

[147] Diodorus, v. 35.

[148] Marsden’s History of Sumatra, p. 172.

[149] Pliny, H. N. XXXIII. 4, 21 aurum arrugia quaesitum non coquitur sed statim suum est; inueniuntur ita massae; necnon in puteis denas excedentes libras; palacras Hispani, alii palacranas, iidem quod minutum est balucem uocant.

May the French paille (in the phrase pailles d’or), Ital. paluola, Span. palazuola, all used technically of gold, be derived from pala, the old technical term, rather than from palea, chaff?

[150] Herod. IV. 11.

[151] How trade was carried on in early days may be well illustrated from Torres Straits of to-day. (Haddon, “The Western Tribe of Torres Straits,” Journal of Anthrop. Inst. XIX. p. 347.)

Dance masks made of turtle shell (340) occasionally used as money.

If a Muralug man wanted a canoe he would communicate with a friend at Moa, who would speak to a friend of his at Badu; possibly the Muralug man might himself go to Badu, or treat with a friend there. The Badu man would cross to Mabuiag to make arrangements, and a Mabuiag man would proceed to Saibai.

If there was no canoe available at the latter place word would be sent on, along the coast, that a canoe was to be cut out and sent down.

The canoe would then retrace the course of the verbal order and ultimately find its way to Muralug. The annual payment for a canoe was say three dibi dibi or goods of about equal value. There were three annual instalments.

There is no money in the Straits; but certain articles have acquired a generally recognized exchange value, a value which is intrinsic, and not irrespective of the rarity of the material or the workmanship put into it. These objects cannot be regarded as money; they are the round shell ornaments (dibi dibi, shell armlet, wai wai, dugong, harpoon, wap, and canoe). A good wai wai is the most valuable possession; the exchange of a wai wai was a canoe, or harpoon. Ten or twelve dibi dibi was considered of equal value to any of the above. A wife was the highest unit of exchange, being valued at a canoe, or a wap or wai wai. “The intermediaries (in the purchase of a canoe) are paid for their services ‘by charging on,’ the amount depending on individual cupidity, or they may be recompensed for their trouble by presents from the purchaser” (p. 841).

[152] [Aristotle,] De Miris Auscult. 104-5 (839ᵃ 34 seqq.).

[153] Pind. Isth. V. 22 sq. μυρίαι δ’ ἔργων καλῶν τέτμηνθ’ ἑκατόμπεδοι ἐν σχερῷ κέλευθοι | καὶ πέραν Νείλοιο παγᾶν καὶ δι’ Ὑπερβορέους.

[154] Ol. III. 31 sq.

[155] Ol. III. 13 sqq.

[156] Pind. Pyth. X. 29 sqq.

[157] Herod. IV. 32.

[158] Herod. IV. 13.

[159] Herod. IV. 33.

[160] Boeckh, Corp. Inscr. Graec. Vol. I. p. 807.

[161] Cf. Sallust, Jug. 18.

[162] They derived it from λύγξ and οὖρον. The difference in colour between the Baltic and Ligurian amber found an easy explanation, the latter was regarded as the solidified urine of the female lynx, the former of the male animal. Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. 2, § 34.

[163] Cf. Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain, 466. Von Sadowski, Die Handelstrassen der Griechen und Römer, p. 15.

[164] Il. V. 720 seqq.

[165] Il. XXIII. 826 seqq.

[166] Il. XII. 433-7,

Dr Leaf, in his introduction to Book XII., when calling attention to various marks of lateness in this book, says: “It has further been remarked with some truth that the numerous similes, though beautiful in themselves, are often disproportionately elaborated and lead up to points which are almost in the nature of an anti-climax.” But the use of the word ἀληθής in an entirely un-Homeric sense seems to make it almost certain that these lines are of late date.

[167] Cf. Plautus, Merc. II. 3. 63. Virg. Georg. I. 390, carpentes pensa puellae.

[168] Mr J. G. Frazer gives me the following interesting note:

As to the cutting off a child’s hair and weighing it against gold or silver, the facts are these.

(1) Among the Harari in Eastern Africa when a child is a few months old, its hair is cut off and weighed against silver or gold money; the money is then divided among the female relations of the mother.

(2) Mohammed’s daughter Fâtima gave in alms the weight of her child’s hair in silver.

(3) Among the Mohammedans of the Punjaub a boy’s hair is shaved off on the 7th or 3rd day after birth, or sometimes immediately after birth. Rich people give alms of silver coins equal in weight to the hair.

(4) When the Hindus of Bombay dedicate a child to any god or purpose, they shave its head and weigh the hair against gold or silver.

(5) In the inland districts of Padang (Sumatra) three days after birth the child’s hair is cut off and weighed. Double the weight of hair in money is given to the priest.

(6) There is the Egyptian custom, for which we have the evidence of Herodotus, II. 65, and Diodorus, I. 8.

[169] F. L. Griffith, “Metrology of the Medical Papyrus Ebers,” Proceed. of Soc. Bibl. Arch. June 1891.

[170] Hultsch, Metrol. Scrip. 299, τὸ Μακεδονικὸν τάλαντον τρεῖς ἦσαν χρύσινοι.

[171] Catalogue of Greek Kings of Bactria, p. lxix.

[172] Catalogue of Greek Kings of Bactria, p. lxvii.

[173] Lepsius, Denkmäler, 331.

[174] Brugsch, Op. cit. I. 386.

[175] Münz- Mass- und Gewichtswesen in Vorderasien, p. 80 seqq.

[176] Lenormant, La Monnaie dans l’Antiquité, I. 103 seqq.

[177] Metrol.², p. 375.

[178] Horapollo, I. 11, Πάρ’ Αἰγυπτίοις μονάς ἐστιν αἱ δύο δραχμαί.

[179] Deecke, Etrusk. Forsch. II. p. 1. Head, Op. cit. p. 12.

[180] Head, Op. cit. p. 747.

[181] Τὸ μέντοι Σικελικὸν τάλαντον ἐλάχιστον ἴσχυεν, τὸ μὲν ἀρχαῖον, ὡς Ἀριστοτέλης λέγει τέτταρας καὶ εἴσκοσι τοὺς νούμμους τὸ δὲ ὕστερον δυοκαίδεκα, δύνασθαι δὲ τὸν νοῦμμον τρία ἡμιωβόλια. (Hultsch, Reliq. Metrol. Scrip. 300.)

[182] Cf. Hucher, L’Art Gaulois, p. 19 and Pl. I.

[183] Histoire de la Monnaie Romaine, I. 236.

[184] Étude des Monnaies de l’Italie antique.

[185] De Rep. II. 35, 60.

[186] X. 50.

[187] Aulus Gellius, XI. 1. 2. 3; Plutarch, Poplic. 11, says a cow = 100 ὀβολοί, a sheep 10 ὀβολοί.

[188] Pollux, IX. 80, εὐθὺς πρίω μοι δέκα νόμων μόσχον καλάν.

[189] Theocr. IX. 3, μόσχως βουσὶν ὑφέντες.

[190] Mr Head (Coinage of Syracuse), Numismat. Chronicle, New Series, Vol. XIV., thinks that under Dionysius the Elder (406-367 B.C.) and his successors gold was to silver as 15:1 at Syracuse, whilst in the time of Agathocles (317-289 B.C.) it was as 12:1. We can however hardly take the evidence of the coin weights as sufficient, when we consider the extraordinary devices to which Dionysius resorted to raise money, causing coins of tin to pass as silver, making the silver coins bear a double value etc. as is related by Aristotle, Oeconomica, II. 21.

[191] Op. cit. 26.

[192] Livy XXXIV. 1. Valer. Max. 9. 1. 3.

[193] Head, Op. cit. 160.

[194] Mommsen (Blacas), Histoire de la Monnaie romaine, III. 275.

[195] Pertz, Monumenta Historica Germaniae, Vol. III. Lex Alamannorum, lib. sec. LXXX. summus bovis 5 tremisses valet cett.

[196] Pertz, Op. cit. Leges Burgundiorum, p. 534: pro bove solidos 2 cett.

[197] Schive and Holmboe, Norges Mynter (Christiania, 1865), pp. i-iv.

[198] Herod. VI. 57. See evidence of this collected by Stengel, Die griechische Sakralaltertümer, pp. 29 sq. 81 sq. (Iwan Müller’s Handbach, Vol. V. pt. iii.)

[199] Hist. Animal. X. 50, τά γε μὴν ἱερεῖα ἑκάστης ἀγέλης αὐτόματα φοιτᾷ καὶ τῷ βωμῷ παρέστηκεν, ἄγει δὲ ἄρα αὐτὰ πρώτη μὲν ἡ θεός, εἶτα ἡ δύναμίς τε καὶ ἡ τοῦ θύοντος βούλησις. εἰ γοῦν ἐθέλοις θῦσαι οἶν, ἰδού σοι τῷ βωμῷ παρέστηκεν οἶς, καὶ δεῖ χέρνιβα κατάρξασθαι· εἰ δὲ εἴης τῶν ἁδροτέρων καὶ ἐθέλοις θῦσαι βοῦν θήλειαν ἢ καὶ ἔτι πλείους, εἶτα ὑπὲρ τῆς τιμῆς οὔτε σὲ ὁ νομεὺς ἐπιτιμῶν ζημιώσει οὔτε σὺ λυπήσεις ἐκεῖνον· τὸ γὰρ δίκαιον τῆς πράσεως ἡ θεὸς ἐφορᾷ. καὶ εὖ καταθεὶς ἵλεων ἕξεις αὐτήν· εἰ δὲ ἐθέλοις τοῦ δέοντος πρίασθαι εὐτελέστερον, σὺ μὲν κατέθηκας τὸ ἀργύριον ἄλλως, τὸ δὲ ζῷον ἀπέρχεται, καὶ θῦσαι οὐκ ἔχεις.

[200] Egypt under the Pharaohs (2nd edit. Engl, transl.), Vol. II. p. 199.

[201] Sir Rutherford Alcock, The Capital of the Tycoon, I. 281.

[202] Marco Polo, Yule’s Transl. II. pp. 62 and 70.

[203] Aegypten und ägyptisches Leben in Alterthum, p. 611.

[204] 1 Kings x. 21.

[205] 2 Chron. i. 15.

[206] 2 Chron. i. 17.

[207] Sacred Books of the East, Vols. V., XVIII., and XXIV.

[208] Report of the Royal Commission appointed to enquire into the recent changes in the relative values of the precious metals. 1st Report, p. 60 (1866).

[209] This is almost exactly the weight of the örtug, into 3 of which the ora (ounce) of 410 grs. was divided. The örtug of gold being 136·7 grs., and the value of a cow being 128 grs. of gold, it is hard not to believe that there was a connection between them. (See App. C.)

[210] See above, p. 24.

[211] J. Silvestre, “Notes pour servir à la recherche et au classement des monnaies et des médailles de Annam et de la Cochin-Chine Française.” Excursions et Reconnaissances, No. 15 (1883), p. 395.

[212] H. C. Millies, Recherches sur les monnaies des Indigènes de l’Archipel Indien et de la péninsule Malaie (La Haye, 1871).

[213] Sir Thomas Wade’s Colloquial Chinese Course, I. p. 213 (2nd ed.).

[214] J. Silvestre, Op. cit. p. 308 seqq.

[215] J. Mours, Le Royaume du Cambodge, I. p. 323 (Paris, 1883).

[216] This coin bears on one side the sacred bird Hangsa, on the other a picture of an ancient palace of the kings.

[217] E. Aymonier, Notes sur le Laos. Saigon, 1885.

[218] For an account of the various kinds of Siamese coins of the bullet shape cf. Msg. Pallegoix, Description du royaume Thai ou Siam, I. 256 (Paris, 1854).

[219] E. Aymonier, Cochin-Chine Française. Excursions et Reconnaissances, Vol. X. No. 24 (1885), p. 317.

[220] Aymonier, ibid.

[221] This mode of estimating the age of the buffalo by the length of its horns may throw some light on the young ox suis cornibus intructus of the Marseilles inscription (p. 143).

[222] XXIII. 850 sq.

[223] Od. XXI. 76.

[224] E. Aymonier, Notes sur le Laos, p. 33.

[225] History of the Indian Archipelago by John Crawfurd, F.R.S. Vol. I., p. 271.

[226] P. 275.

[227] History of Sumatra by William Marsden, F.R.S. (London, 1811), p. 171.

[228] R. W. Felkin, ‘Notes on the Madi or Moon tribe of Central Africa.’ Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. XII. pp. 303, seqq.

[229] H. T. Colebrooke, On Indian Weights and Measures (Miscellaneous Essays edited by Prof. E. B. Cowell, 1873), Vol. I. 528-543.

[230] Numismatic Chronicle, IV. 131 (N. S.).

[231] Thomas, Initial Coinage of Bengal, II. p. 6 (Royal Asiatic Journal, Vol. VI.).

[232] Algebra with Arithmetic and Mensuration translated from the Sanskrit of Brahmegupta and Bhascara by H. T. Colebrooke (London, 1817).

[233] Down almost to the present day a system of currency, similar to that shown in the Līlāvati prevailed in Assam. “Gold continues to pass current in small uncoined round balls, usually weighing one Tola,” there was a silver coinage also, and cowries passed as money. W. Robinson, Descriptive Account of Assam, pp. 249 and 267 (London, 1841).

[234] Martini, Metrologia, p. 770. Formerly the nashod = 3 habbi of ·063 gram which is just the weight of the barley grain, whereas ·047 the weight assigned to the gendum is that of a grain of wheat.

[235] Queipo, Essai sur les Systèmes Métriques et Monétaires des anciens peuples I. 360 (Paris, 1859).

[236] Ancient Laws of Ireland, Vol. IV. 335, (Book of Aicill), O’Donovan’s Supplement, s.v. pingiun.

[237] Ruding, Annals of the Coinage of Great Britain, II. 58.

[238] Ruding, op. cit. I. 369.

[239] Marquardt, Röm. Staatsverwaltung, II. p. 30.

[240] Fragm. ap. Hultsch, Metrol. Script. I. 248, ἡ δὲ δραχμὴ κέρατα ιη͵. ἄλλοι δὲ λέγουσιν· ἔχει γραμμὰς τρεῖς ... τὸ γράμμα ὀβολοὺς β͵. ὁ δὲ ὀβολὸς κέρατα γ͵. τὸ δὲ κερὰτιον ἔχει σιτάρια δ͵.

[241] Hultsch, Op. cit. II. 128.

[242] Recueil de travaux relatifs à la Philologie et l’Archéologie Egyptienne et Assyrienne, Vol. X. fasc. 4, p. 157.

[243] Bosman, Guinea, Letter VI. (Pinkerton’s Voyages, Vol. XVI. p. 374).

[244] Although I have made many enquiries and Dr Thiselton Dyer of Kew has taken much trouble in the matter, I am unable to give the reader the botanical names of the Taku and Damba. Dr Dyer thinks the Damba is our old friend the Abrus precatorius, the Indian ratti, confirming the opinion I had previously formed from its weight. These seeds are commonly known as crabs’ eyes.

[245] Op. cit. 373. “The fetiches they cast in moulds made of a black and heavy earth into what form they please.” (p. 367.)

[246] Ellis, History of Madagascar, I. p. 335.

[247] Op. cit. I. p. 6.

[248] Prescott, Conquest of Mexico, p. 44.

[249] Prescott, Peru, p. 56.

[250] Nissen, “Griechische und römische Metrologie” (Iwan Müller’s Handbuch der classischen Alterthumswissenschaft I. 663 seq. or separately, Nordlingen, 1886).

[251] “Das älteste Gewicht,” 1889, pp. 1-9, 34-43.

[252] The whole series of these ancient weights was some years ago subject to a careful process of weighing in a balance of precision by an officer of the Standard Department and the result was published by Mr W. H. Chisholme in the Ninth Annual Report of the Warden of the Standards 1874-5, where a complete list of all of them may be found.

All the more important pieces had however been weighed many years before, and it need only be stated that the results of the process of re-weighing under more favourable conditions are in the main identical with those formerly arrived at by Queipo and the late Dr Brandis.

[253] Metrologie², p. 393.

[254] Étalons pondéraux primitifs et lingots monétaires (Bucharest, 1884), p. 49.

[255] Soph. Antig. 1038 seqq.

[256] I. 94.

[257] Pollux, IX. 83.

[258] Histoire de la Monnaie Romaine, I. 15.

[259] Herod. I. 14.

[260] Hultsch, Metrol.² 579.

[261] Head, op. cit. XXXVI.

[262] Head, op. cit. XXXVI.

[263] Thuc. II. 13.

[264] Ol. I. 75: Nem. IV. 46.

[265] VIII. 375, ὠνομάζετο δ’ Οἰνώνη πάλαι, ἐπῴκησαν δὲ αὐτὴν Ἀργεῖοι καὶ Κρῆτες καὶ Ἐπιδαύριοι καὶ Δωριεῖς.

[266] VI. 22. 2, Ὀλυμπιάδι μὲν τῇ ὀγδοῃ τὸν Ἀργεῖον ἐπήγαγον Φείδωνα τυράννων τῶν ἐν Ἔλλησι μάλιστα ὑβρίσαντα κ.τ.λ.

[267] Φείδωνος δὲ τοῦ τὰ μέτρα ποιήσαντος τοῖς Πελοποννησίοισι καὶ ὑβρίσαντος κ.τ.λ.

[268] Ἔφορος δ’ ἐν Αἰγίνῃ ἄργυρον πρῶτον κοπῆναί φησι ὑπὸ Φείδωνος, ἐμπόριον γὰρ γενέσθαι, διὰ τὴν λυπρότητα τῆς χώρας τῶν ἀνθρώπων θαλαττουργούντων ἐμπορικῶς, ἀφ’ οὖ τὸν ῥῶπον Αἰγιναίαν ἐμπολὴν λέγεσθαι.

[269] Strabo VIII. 358, Φείδωνα δὲ τὸν Ἀργεῖον, δέκατον μὲν ὄντα ἀπὸ Τημένου, δυνάμει δὲ ὑπερβεβλημένον τοὺς κατ’ αὐτόν, ἀφ’ ἧς τήν τε λῆξιν ὅλην ἀνέλαβε τὴν Τημένου διεσπασμένην εἰς πλείω μέρη, καὶ μέτρα ἐξεῦρε τὰ Φειδώνια καλούμενα καὶ σταθμοὺς κὰι νόμισμα κεχαραγμένον τό τε ἄλλο καὶ τὸ ἀργυρον.

[270] Pollux Onom. X. 179, εἴη δ’ ἂν καὶ Φείδων τι ἀγγεῖον ἐλαιηρόν, ἀπὸ τῶν Φειδωνίων μέτρων ὠνομασμέον, ὑπὲρ ὧν ἐν Ἀργείων πολιτείᾳ Ἀριστοτέλης λέγει.

[271] This enables us to understand why it was that in the truce at Pylus it was stipulated (probably by the Spartans) that they should be allowed to send in 2 Attic (not Peloponnesian) choenikes of barley meal for each of their men daily. By this arrangement the beleaguered men got a larger ration.

[272] πάντων δὲ πρῶτος Φείδων Ἀργεῖος νόμισμα ἕκοψεν ἐν Αἰγίνῃ· καὶ δοὺς τὸ νόμισμα καὶ ἀναλαβὼν τοὺς ὀβελίσκους, ἀνέθηκε τῇ ἐν Ἄργει Ἥρα, ἐπειδὴ δὲ τότε οἰ ὀβελίσκοι τὴν χεῖρα ἐπλήρουν, τουτέστι, τὴν δράκα, ἡμεῖς, καίπερ μὴ πληροῦντες τὴν δράκα τοῖς ἓξ ὀβόλους δραχμὴν αὐτὴν λέγομεν παρὰ τὸ δράξασθαι.

[273] Φείδων ὁ Ἀργεῖος ἐδήμευσε τὰ μέτρα ... καὶ ἀνεσκεύασε καὶ νόμισμα ἀργυροῦν ἐν Αἰγίνῃ ἐποίησεν (l. 30).

[274] Head op. cit. XXXVIII.

[275] Op. cit. 153.