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256
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1898.
Colonel Fryer drops a remark on p. 14, which goes far towards explaining the varying words used for "a ten" in the Naga and connected tongues in enumerating 30, 40, etc., to 90. He says gipso signifies "a clap of the hands," and so t'umgip means "three claps :" m'ligip, "four claps," and so on. Une can see how this comes about: the numerals are counted on the fingers up to ten and then the hands are clapped," one ten." This explanation also accounts for the term for fifty being an insolated one in nearly all the dialects; because when the enumerator comes to "five claps," i. e., to a handfal of tens, he would naturally mark the fact in his mind by a special term and proceed again with what is to him the laborious and important process of counting on to a hundred.
Only one of the books available to me, Dr. Newland's, gives any direct statement as to the Chins' notions of coin and currency, but he also gives the reason why the other books are practically silent on the point, for he says (introd., p. 4) that the Chins use the Burmese words for money, having none of their own for the purpose.
His table for the Lais runs as follows:
1 rupees!
1 half-rupee
1 4-anna bit
1 2-anna bit
1 pice
This is all Burmese pronounced and used Chin fashion, the Burmese words being respectively dingd (spelt danga), ngámú, tamat, muzi, paisan (Indian). Pö, mab, chí in the above expressions are all numeral coefficients, and kat means one. In the Burmese tamat the taone, and the Chin expression shows that the Lais have borrowed the Burmese word for "one mat" bodily without understanding its full import, which is interesting.
tanka pökit
| ngâmô pikat ba'mab mabkat mûchi chikat paisa pökat
Br
...
...
...
...
pp. 31, 42, 66, 82, etc.
... pp. 31, 42, 519
pp. 32, 42, 614
... pp. 32, 42, 502
...
pp. 31, 42, 635, 657
Tanka, which is an Indian word, and its derivatives in the Far East, as I have already shown at length, mean "coin" pure and simple, and the word is so used by the Chins. Thus we have shwe-tankà (Bur. shwedingd), gold coin the British sovereign: ngûn-tankà, silver coin the British rupee: baung-sa-tankà, copper coin the British-Indian pice: sappo-tanka, bad coin counterfeit money (p. 650). Tankà is also used for "money."83
=
The Lai word for silver, ngun, which by the way is good Shân, is, as usual, employed for a rupee, singly on p. 258 and also with tankà (ngun-tanka) on p. 651. On pp. 161, 225 ngûn is used generally for money, while on pp. 225, 673 we have a curious expression asòk-òk, lit., "the purchaser," for "money."
Captain MacNabb supports the above statements by giving tankd for rupee on pp. 5, 48, and for money on pp. 14, 45; while he has tankà-pakat (pp. 11, 34) for "one rupee," and tankà-fankal (p. 21) for Rs. 20, fan being a numeral coefficient (= pö, pa, pan, pün, pun).
Bar. nga, and so hama ngâma (Bur.), half rupee.
The Siyin Chin, who declined to have anything to say to copper money, recognising only the rupee and its parts as coined currency, gave as his list the following terms:
Rupee, taukà
Re. 1, tanka pyat (Bur. by:) half rupee, hámús
4-anna bit, matik (Bur. mat)
2-anna bit, makat ( 1 mú: Bur. má)
Thus showing that the Siyin Chins use practically the same terminology as the Lais for their currency.
so Burmese, achet, spelt ak'yak, a blow, stroke.
32 Pages 33, 42, 599, 681.
4 Ha, Shin,
Tanka ngaingai, genuine rupee; p. 684. 85 Pages 47, 107, 225, 508.
