Indian Antiquary Vol 57

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 146

126
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JULY, 1928
There are two or more players and each has coins called ngôn, and they all have to equat, behind the lines kyanti. The first player throws all the ngôn beyond the line kan:df:. The next player points out to him one of them to le hit, and the first player tries to hit it with a coin. If he hits he wins all the ngón. If he misses, the second player plays, and so on till the ngôn pointed out is hit. If a player hits another coin than that pointed out, that player has to add one to the lot (ngón) played for. If a pice falls short of the kan:ti: it is doubled, and both thrown over the kandi: and added to the stake.
The use of the hole (kwin) is that whoever puts a pice into it, gets it. To play the game was called twêbóndi.
I. Metal Charms. Cortain charms, which are called sak by the Shâns, are readily mistakeable for coins. They are small silver engraved discs and cxisted all over Upper Burma, let in under the skins of braves and heroes, and especially of dacoits. They were usually charms against injury and death, and are of the size and appearance of the one-på silver piece. Two from the body of a deceased Shân I gave long ago to the British Museum. They were very roughly inscribed in a manner that will not bear mechanical reproduction on paper and may be described as follows. Weight and size are of a one-pè silver piece.
No. 1. Obverse: a chinto and in dog. Pali, sihó siha dhum (popularly pronounced thò niha Ahàn). I am a lion of lions. Reverse : (the figure) 3. This stands for the day of the week; Tuesday, the emblem of which is a chint é, referring probably to the deceased's birthday.
No. 2. Obverse : the figure of a herinit (Skr.rshi, Burmese yut). Reverse in dog-Pali, indrivdnat paró parë (popular pronunciation endriyanam-payò payé), the desires of this (side) ure on that (side). 'This is a popular Buddhist formula, meaning "the extinction of desires," i.e., nirvana.
I subsequently secured 30 specimens of precisely the same description taken from under the skin of a deceased Burmese dacoit leader, who died in Port Blair, Andaman Islands during a sentence of penal servitude, and these, too, bave gone to the British Museum.
Colquhoun, Across Chryse, vol. II, p. 175, has a representation of a Chinese "cash" silvored over and used as "Chinese ornaments," and says that the inscription means "happi. ness like the Eastern ocean" and "longevity like the Southern Mountain." No doubt these * coin' ornaments were charms.
Such charms have been noted by other travellers. E.g., Malcom (Travels in South Eas. tern Asiu, vol. I, Burman Empire, 1839, p. 219) says: "A few individuals, especially among those who have made arnis a profession, insert under the skin of the arm, just below the shoulder, small pieces of gold, copper, or iron, and sometimes diamonds or pearls. One of the converts [to Christianity) at Ava, formerly a colonel in the Burman army, had ten or twelve of these in his arm, several of which he allowed me to extract. They are thin plates of gold, with a charm written upon them, and then rolled up."
Again, Anderson (Manlalay to Momien, 1876, pp. 409-10) says:--" The tritkay-nekandar, or depnty, from Bhamo... afforded & curious illustration of a custom mentioned by Colonel Yule. The upper part of his checks was disfigured by large swellings, caused by the insertion under the skin of lumps of gold, to act as charms to procure invulnerability. Yule mentions the case of Burmese convict executed at the Andaman Islands, under whose skin gold and silver coins were found. The stones referred to in the text of Marco Polo, as well 88 the substances mentioned in the note by his learned editor, do not appear to have been jewels. The custom prevails among Yunnan muleteers of concealing precious stones under the skin of the chest and neck, a slit being made, through which the jewel is forced. This, however, is not to preserve the owners' lives, but their portable wealth. While at Mandalay, I ex. amined some men just arrived from Yung-chang, and found individuals with as many as fifteen coins and jewels thus concealed, as a precaution against the robbers who might literally