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260
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1898.
To gather how the Lushais reckon the money they come across one has to search Mr. Soppitt's pages. The word for rupee, or money, is that for silver, shum or shôm,10 and dár, a word with strong Naga affinities, is the numeral coefficient for rupees; and it would seem that in reckoning they either use (a) the term plus coefficient plus numeral, or (b) the coef ficient alone with the numeral, or (c) when there is no ambiguity simply the numeral. Thus, we find :
(a)
(b)
p. 67
p. 60
p. 60
67
(c)
P.
p. 35
dar-ringkh
dâr-shômni
shômeunî dâr-ringâh1.
dar-shôm tûm-lê-ringâh
dâr-shôm-mili
shômenni
shomni shômtum-ringâh
Mr. Soppitt also gives siki for the four-anna bit, borrowed from Bengali.
My own notes, however, tell a very different tale from the simple one above quoted, and one more in accord with the painfully elaborate methods of calculating, which one knows to be customary with the savage or semi-civilized peoples of the Far East. Whether right or wrong, my notes are the result of an infinity of patience.
P. 67
P. 35
p. 66
pp. 66, 68
P. 68
p. 60
English.
2-anna pieco
4-anna piece half rupee
Rs. 5
Rs. 2
Rs. 4
Rs. 5
Rs. 20
Rs. 25
Rs. 85
Rs. 40
Rs. 20
The first point to observe is the nomenclature of the coined divisions of the rupee given me by the men, above-mentioned as speaking different dialects, whom I may now call for the present purpose the Eastern and Western Lushais; meaning by the Eastern Lûshai the man (? Maring) whose speech was nearest Chin and by the Western Lûshais the men whose speech was nearest to that of Mr. Scppitt's Kûki-Lushais. These men named the silver coins thus:
rapee
one rupeels
1 rupees15
1 rupees16 12 rupees15
...
Rs. 20
Rs. 35
Eastern Lushai.
parê ânâ12
silap, siplàp
t’ngâsi
tangå
pkp
p'ap tig
shôm dâr-ringâh
dâr-mi
dâr-mili
pkp-enkl
plap-sôms1
-10 Pages 53, 57, 78, 75 for sham; pp. 66, 68 for shim
11 This is the usual Far Eastern way of employing the 13 I. e., two annas.
Western Lushai.
duânâ13
Biki14
hâdali14
tangâ
tangi-kit
tanga-lê-sîkiis
tanga-lê-hâdall tanga-lê-hâdali-siki
silver.
money: p. 77 for shum numeral coefficient: the next instance is unusual. 15 Indian, doanni, a 2-anna bit."
18 The coins being placed before them to name.
14 Both Indian. Hadali adh, a half rupee.
18 We may perhaps take lap (lak) = one, and p' (= po, pa, etc.) as the numeral coefficient for rupee, but the expression has an interesting Kachin look about it, vide ante; p. 198.
17 There is confusion here, as both words mean Re. 1: enkoia half; cf. Chin koi in Houghton, p. 112. 18 Lewith.
