________________
202
English.
40
100
200
1,00000
10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
...
...
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
m'lishi, m'lisi
l'tsà, l'sàss
nitsà, nisà
chingml, singm!
munmi
senmi
wanmi
rimi
Kachin.
...
...
"
malisi
lachá, latsâ
n'k'ongchâ
..
hing hingtsf
[AUGUST, 1898.
Ordinarily, therefore, I gather that a Singpho would count his rupees thus: - dalá-má, dalá-n'k'òng, duld-masum. But that the Singphôs use the generic term kump'rông also, may be seen from the expressions kump'rong lachá, 100 rupees; kump'rông k'un, 20 rupees, in Needham's Grammar, pp. 76, 78. Similarly a Kachin would ordinarily count his rupees by the coeffi cient term lap (gydp), thus: -lap-mi, làp-ni, làp-m'sum. Or he might count them by borrowing the Burmese word dingá, a coin (Hertz, p. 38, Symington, p. 66), thus: - dingd-ms, dingání, dingá-m'sum. But he might also count them by using the generic term kump'rò, vide Symington's expressions kump'rò-l'sà, Rs. 100; kump'rò-l'sà-m'nga-shi, Rs. 150 (pp. 14, 16). It is therefore clear that a Kachin would at once understand a Singphô in a bargain, though it must not be assumed that a Singphô, with his surroundings, would have any idea of the Kachin's method of dividing his rupees, that style of calculation belonging to the BurmeseShân side of the ranges dividing Burma from India, and being utterly foreign to any Indian people.
Singpho.
It may help to explain the numerals of these tribes to note here how the Myitkyinà Kachin was induced to deliver up his terms, for an attempt to extract them out of him direct failed altogether. A number of pebbles were collected and he was told to count them one by one. He accordingly took up the pebbles one by one and enumerated them on his fingers, turning one finger down at each enumeration, and when he had reached five he pushed the pebbles aside. He then proceeded to count five more in the same way and pushed them aside, and then said, pointing to the two little heaps: l'kòng m'ngá sí, "two fives (are) ten."
The Myitkyina Kachin collapsed at 100, being unable to understand numerals beyond this point. 1,000 seems to be the end of the Singphô numeral denominations, but the Kachin denominations follow that of the Barma Tribes generally ::thus,
tel
10 ching 10 mun 10 sen 10 win 10 ri
100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000 10,000,000
Symington, p. 61, is a little confused (probably his teachers were); and gives ching, mun and sing as the equivalents for a lakh, 100,000.
"The Kachina have a word for cowry, shdwun (Symington, p. 88), but the Singphis probably have not.
I have found this plan by far the most effective with such semi-savages. The heavy, puzzled look disappears at once from their faces, intelligence takes its place, and then slowly and painfully the numbers come out one by one. But I warn the enquirer that much patience and a trained ear are necessary to a successful result. The educated, literary Manipurf official, quoted in the section on Manipuri Weights, enumerated on his fingers, ev idently from sheer habit.
