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324
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1897.
màt
Judson also gives us :
2 pejt are 1 můjisi 8 můji » I kyat 2 pè , 1 mů
10 mů 1 kyat Spearman, Vol. I. p. 406, gives us a table on the same lines as Judson, but adds that the Tiss is 3.652 lbs. &v.;62 and goes on to say that the " names given to fractions of a rupee are derived from the measures of weight": - po i s 1 anna mu i s 2 annas
4 annas ngân183 ,, 8 , Đôngmà t4 , 12 , kyatmüdin65 , 14 ) kyat
1 rupee Colonel Spearman then goes on, under measures of capacity, to make a statement of some value in the present connection:-"An endeavour has been made to introduce a standard " basket" (tin) containing 2,218.19 cub. in., but it has not been very successful for want of legislative authority, and the disturbance to trade that would be caused by any enforced alteration in the customary uses has prevented any application to the Legislature. The differences in the various local uses seriously interfere with statistical enquiries, except to those conversant with these differences. The Akyab basket contains about 23 lbs, of rice in the husk, the Maulmain basket 48 lbs., the Bassein about 51 lbs., and the Rangoon basket from 48 lbs, to abont 50 lbs." A glance at App. xc. to Vol. II., Madras Manual of Administration, pp. 505-520, on "local varieties of weights and measures," would farther illustrate the hopelessness of attaining uniformity in the East in such matters.
Browne, who may be looked upon as an independent investigator, in his Historical Account of the Thayetmyo District, 1872, gives us the same general information, but in a footnote to p. 60 says, and wrongly, that the yrēji is the "red and black seed of the Abrus precatorius," affording a fine example of the mixing up the rati and the double rati.
Cooke, Vol. I. p. 735, says "the basis of the Burmese weight is the tickal (kyat), which equals 252 grs. Troy, and exactly one cubic inch of distilled water at the temperature of 60° One hundred tickals make a viss: one viss equals 3.85 lbs. av. or 140 British Indian tolas exactly."7 In a footnote, giving the fractions of tho kyat, he follows Browne in the mistake of making the yweji equal the seed of the dbrus precatorins.
The above writers are those who may be looked on as the authorities par excellence on the subject, but there is a popular book, which to the public generally is the anthority on most things Burmese, viz., " The Burman, his Life and Notions," by Shway Yoe (J. G. Scott) 1882, and as at Vol. II. p. 298 ff., this book goes into weights and measures, I will briefly notice Mr. Scott's remarks here. In this work Mr. Scott does what is natural enough in a popular book, though annoying to investigators, i. e., he follows, or rather takes his ideas bodily from, all the authori. ties in this as in many other similar matters, and tells us nothing in addition to what they can tell us, except that
4 pêkbå are 1 tula
4,000 tula , 1 tapón or tasů 61 Ji, spelt kr2, means great. Gordon, Companion, p. 105, gives the concurrent tables clearly and correctly, bu without recognising their nature.
c2 At p. 34 u., be says, however, that 100 viss are exactly 360 lbs. Other writers are no more careful, for Tremenbeere, in his Reports on the tin of Mergai about 1842, says (Indo-China, Vol. I. p. 264), that the visa is 363 lbs., and 02 p. 299, 3'55 lbs. GS I. e., 5 mda.
I. 6., 3 mats.
661, ., a rupee less a mo (two annas). 60 See also Browne, Thayelmyo, p. 60: Yule, Ava, p. 254: Scott, The Burman, Vol. II. p. 298, who seems to have followed the Gazetteer.
07 But my recollection is that in Rangoon dealers in money made 142 toids go to the visa of silver. By tolis scil. here rupees. Crawfurd, Ara, makes the rics equal to 3'85 lbs., writing in 1826; p. 445. Gordon, Companion to Handbook of Colloquial Burmere, p. 104, and Slack, Manual of Burmese, p. 10, both give 142 tlds to the viss.
