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262
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1898.
used for (12 pice) "3 anvas," in a manner with which my readers will be now familiar. The probabilities are that the more practised traders of this communtiy enamerate thus :
5 aunas ... siki-lê-pali
9 annos ... hîdali-le-pali 13 annas ... hâdali-siki-lê-pali
and so on. I may mention that the Eastern Lushai called pice kri.paisá, kri being used by him for both brass and copper, according to a well-known Far Eastern root. Also both men recognised the Abrus sced as mint'i (East) and sentet (West).
The Lushai terms for the metals compare as follows:
English.
Nr. Soppit.
Eastern Lushai.
Western Lushai.
gold . . tângmajiko3 (P. (4)... kô ... ... silver ... ... shîm (p. 97)... .. brass, copper ..
kri ... ...
dàtså ... iron ... ... tir (p. 75) ... ... lôhwa (Indian)
... ringmajiko
sům ... dår, hâr
rângwa ... tir ... swan
tin
...
|
lead
...
..
kêma25
-
The fourth Lashai, whom I had an opportunity of examining, was a 20 (or Dzo, as the books have it),26 the tribe most closely related of all to the Ching, and I have kept his nunerals to the last, so as to sewve as an argument for clinching the inter-relationship of Chiu and Lushai.
Zo Lashai Numerals.
4 7 10 100
... pkàt ... ... p'li ... ... ... p'sâri ... ... t'schom27 ... ...
... 2 ... 5 ... 8 ... 11 ... 1,000
.. p’nit ... ... ... p'nga ... ... . prík ... . ...t'schom-lê-p'kat2... ... tchàng
3 ... p'tûm 6 ... p'rak 9 ... p'kwa ...... It'schom-p'nitas
Ilis terms for the metals were also extremely interesting. Gold, and for the Indian aôná. which has become the term for silver among the Manipüri Nâgas, ante, p. 214 24 : silver, tanká, ie.. the term for the rupee has become that for the metal it is made of: iron, lir : lead, hár, used for brass among the Lushais, as we have just seen.
15 Capt. Lewin's list in Anderson's Hill Tirpora gold is shona (Bengali): silver is tankabin: iron is t'it. 24 Also sh1929 (Bengali).
20 K'e is Burmese. 26 See Newland, p.1; Houghton, p. 4. 27 The t, & and ch all distinctly sounded, with a hesitation betwoen the t and s. * So on to 19.
29 So on to 90. 294 Reversing the Indian process of thought, where the coin," rupee," is named after the metal it is made of
