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OCTOBER, 1898.]
CURRENCY AND COINAGE AMONG THE BURMESE.
257
Tarning to the Southern Chins, Col. Fryer nowhere mentions money, and Mr. Honghton only does so incidentally, nsing the word for silver, hèn, for rupee (p. 44) and also for money (p. 46). From his pages the method of counting rupees can be gathered thus:
page 46 | hèn lo-hò ... ... Re. 1
, 47 .. hèa lò– ngô ... ... Re. 5 ,, 48 ..] hèn lò– ngà ... ... , 16 25 44 f. ..] hèn lò-haukkyit
hankkvit ... Here lò (lo) is the numeral coefficient for coin, pp. 20, 44.
It may be assumed, therefore, that the Chins count their money in a straightforward way by the British coins they use. But that they also use the numeral coefficients for the purpose can be seen from a sentence in Newland, p. 96:
adiluk-kâ pö-ruk 85 kàn pêk-lai the-whole-for six I pay-will
Translated : I will pay Rs. 6 for the whole lot: The words for the metals compare as follow in my authorities :
Chin Terms for the Metals.
Newland.
MacNabb.
Houghton.
Fryer.
The Siyin.
gold ... silver
copper brass...
shwês (B)87.shwê, shwi (B). La88 ... hà ... ... ngũn88 (S) nê (B) ... hèn ... ... hếam ... Þaungsà (S) . ...... klêsen ... ... dâr ... ... dâr ... ... k'atyàs (B) ... sànpyú (B), sànpyûb (B) ... daunglok
ngen tihr ... .. tihr ...
...n't'i ... ... tt, n't491 ... kwen
kwen ... ke (B)
.. kim (8) ... ngun (8)
bảksàn hàkyeng
dàl ... t'8 .
hak chitlòng
tin
iron ...
lead ... zinc ...
The Chins, or at least some of them, must have some notions of Troy weight, as may be seen from statements in Newland. Thusat p. 557 n. he says, after explaining that the Chins measure and do not weigh their goods, "silk yarn is sold by weight, one rapee's weight being akyé-épkat (Pakydpkát, “one rupee-weight)," each kyép consisting of so many smaller skeins or bål-kata. .... Beeswax is sold in pieces, each about a viss in weight; these pieces being called chwé- or shwé-kat," lit., one hundred. Here we seem to have distinct rudiments of Troy weight, copied from the Burmese and Shans, thus:
akyap-kat .... ... ... weight of one rupee (tickal or told) chwe-(=shwê-)kat ... ... weight of one hundred rupees
w Po, nom. coeff., for rapees. * Shiod ngangai, ngtin ngaingai, pure gold, pure silver. Cf. n. 81 above, tanka ngaingai, genuine rupee. 7 B stands for Burmese, and S for Shan.
#Maungbdha, gold kept hereditarily : p. 75. # Bur. k'atyd, pinchbeck : pp. 67, 104,
Also any white metal which is not silver, » Ti, Northern Chin. » From the expression (p. 67) for bullet, ki-m'ling (k’lüng, pp. 69, 116, a lump, hard thing). * One cannot help thinking, however, that the word is really bak, the kat being added for "one."
