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MARCH, 1902.]
NOTES ON MALAGASY OURRENCY.
113
(2) The Voamena Scale.
varifitoventy
7 rice seeds or voamenat ilavoamena ... ... ... 15 .. or voamena ... ... ... 30 , , or 1 lasiray
... ... ... 45 „ „ or 1 , rosvoamena
... ... 60, or 2 , lasiroa ... .. 75
or 2 .. lasitelo
... ... ... 105. or 3 Here again the missing point of 3 voamena has been superseded by the sikajy of 90 seeds of the next scale. As also have those of 4 voamena and 5 voamena by the separate terms venty and iraimbilanja (pron. bilandza). The venty, I take it, corresponds to the upper Troy weight, "the lamp" or full amount put into the scale and the iraimbilanja to the greator lump or increased apper Troy weight, the term meaning " full weight," i. e., the extreme amount put into the scale.
(3) The Dollar Scale. sikajy
... 90 rice seeds or dollar kirobo
180 » , or loso ... ... ... 360, , ort ,
ariary ... ... ... 720, or i . The available evidence seems to give a clear history of the full scale: as if the Malagasy had by degrees raised their upper unit in the Troy scale from very low beginnings. Thas, it would be arguable that the original scale had been 10 rice seeds to the pea, with the rice seed as the lower and the pea as the higher denomination, while the pea itself gave way to the red seed of three peas, which, in its turn, was superseded by the imported trade dollar of 24 red soods, the final upper Troy weight. In the full scale, in fact, we seem to see reflected the extension by degrees of Malagasy trade and huckstering operations.
The English in Madagascar had no difficulty in reconciling the local scale to the money they had been accustomed to, by taking standard dollar at 4s. This made the great unit of all weighments, the voamena, to be two-pence and henceforth there was no difficulty in making the rest of the scale fit in with the English monetary system. In their dealings it was customary to weigh out payments as low as the half-voamena or a penny in silver ; below that denomination values of the minute pieces of silver were guessed or assumed by appearance or feel.
The cowry was once also in currency, but it has long been confined to the savage tribes of the West Coast. However, it seems to have left traces in the nomenclature of the more civilised currency. Thus we have akoranbola, uncoined silver currency (akora, shell: vola, money): akorambolamena, uncoined gold currency (mena, red). Silver money went by the Dame of volafotsy, white money.
• Conventionally that is
• Irambilanja is a regular derivative of iraika-vilanja, in the sense of "one full-weight," through a common root lanja, & weight, derived from the Swahili mlana, to carry.
