Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/210

 regarded as part of the ordinary supply of food placed with the dead in the grave. But I forbear from laying the slightest stress on negative evidence of such a kind.

But beyond doubt we have on the American continent, far removed from connection with Asia, a series of facts closely harmonising with what we have found in Further Asia, and also among the peoples of Hither Asia, Europe and Africa. The Aztecs are still measuring gold, but the Incas have invented the balance. The Incas have no alphabet, the quipus as yet being their greatest advance towards a means of keeping a record of the past. It follows that it is possible for the human race to invent a system of weighing before it has made any advance in letters or science. Hence it is logical to infer that the civilized races of Asia and Europe could have discovered a means of weighing gold long before the Chaldean sages made a single step in their astronomical discoveries, or a single symbol of the cuneiform syllabary had as yet been impressed on brick or tablet. Weights of various grains.

grammes Troy Grain          ·064 Barley              ·064 Wheat               ·048 Rice                ·036 Carob               ·192 = 3 barley = 4 wheat Lupin               ·384 = 2 carobs Maize (ordinary)    ·128 = 2 barley Ratti               ·128 = 2 barley Rye                 ·032 = 1/2 barley