Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/181

 Irish, and the modern Ossetes. But the Annamites themselves employ as currency the silver bar and string of cash as we saw above: accordingly when the hill tribes have dealings with the people of the plain the full grown buffalo is reckoned at a bar of silver, or, its equivalent, 100 strings of cash, while the small buffalo is set at fifty strings.

Thus the Orang Glaï have often to buy a pair of elephant's tusks at the cost of eight buffalos or eight bars of silver. Taxes are paid in buffalos; thus the Tjrons of Karang pay a buffalo for each house, or compound for the whole village by a payment of ten buffalos whose horns are at least as long as their ears. Here then we find that exactly as the ancient Irish when they borrowed the Roman system of unciae and scripula (unga and screapall) equated the ounce of silver to their own unit, the cow, so we find these wild tribes of Annam forced to adapt their primitive unit to the metallic unit of their more cultured neighbours. Again, the Bahnars of Annam, who dwell on the borders of Laos, have much the same system. With them the highest unit is the head, i.e. a male slave, who is estimated, according to his strength, age and skill, at 5, 6, or 7 buffalos, or the same number of kettles, as the buffalo and the kettle have the same value, which naturally varies with the size and age of the animal and the quality of the kettle. A full grown buffalo, or a large kettle, is worth seven glazed jars of Chinese shape with a capacity of 10 to 15 litres each. One jar is worth 4 muks. The muk was originally the name of some special article, but now is simply used as a unit of account. Each muk is worth 10 mats, or iron hoes, which are manufactured by the Cédans, and which form the sole agricultural implement of the wild tribes of all these regions. This hoe is the smallest monetary unit used by the Bahnars, and is worth about one penny in European goods. This mat or hoe serves them as small currency and all petty transactions are carried on by it. Thus a