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MARCH, 1902.]
NOTES ON MALAGASY CURRENCY.
111
simply made the cat ap dollar equal in weight to the big Spanish dollar and left the small uncut French dollar as it was, helped in this aim by the fact of the actual difference being about two of their standard seeds when proportionately enhanced. The people naturally muddled the two denominations in speech and practice.
The seed weights theoretically work out thus: the variraiventy or rice seed equals 1 gr, Troy : the eranambatry or seed of the Cajanus Indicus (pigeon-pea, Congo-pea, cadjan-pes, no-eye- the universal dal of India) equals 5 grs. : the voamena, the red-seed of the (?) equals 15 grs. There is nothing Indian or Far Eastern about this seed-unit system, but taking the old rapee or told (the representative of the rupee as a weight) at half the theoretical dollar or 180 grs. Troy we get & suggestive scale :
8 Indian ratis: make 1 voamena 12 voamena do. 1 rupee
96 ratis
1 rupee which is the fact in the modern popular Indian scale. Again taking the old rati as 1,875 grs. (its standard) and equal th Doamena, we get the soamena as equal to 15 grs., which is its Troy weight. However, this analogy, anless a trade with India of sufficient volume can be established for long years back, will not bear further following up.
Like all peoples of their class of civilisation the Malagasy divided their currency into very small portions, the mental operations of which are most clearly brought out by the following tabulations.
The eranambatry, the dal seed or pes, consisted of 10 rice seeds (vary). Each of these seeds had its separate name, consisting of the word vary, rice, plus the numeral, plus venty, lamp or piece: thus -
var-irai-venty ... rice 1 piece vari-roa-venty rice 2 pieces vari-telo-venty rice 3 do. vari-efa-benty ... rice 4 do. vari-dimi-venty ... rice 5 do. vari-enim-benty ... rice 6 do. vari-Ato-venty ... rice 7 do. vari-valo-venty ... rice 8 do. vari-sivi-venty .... rice 9 do.
eranambatry ... 1 fall ambatry (pea) Of these, however, only the saridi miventy or five rice seeds, the varifi toventy or 7 rice seeds and the eranambatry of 10 rice seeds were in common use and parlance. The varidimiventy was the half ambatry and the varifitoventy was the conventional half ilavoamena (itself the half voamena or red seed),
good of the abre precatorime, known as Black-eyed Susan in St. Helens among its many nicknames wide Ind. Ant. Vol. XXVI. p. 914,
