310 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



ABOEIGINAL MONEY.* 



At a late meeting of the Academy of Sciences of San Fran- 

 cisco, Mr. R. E. C. Stearns presented a paper uj^on the money 

 of uncivilized man, exhibiting specimens of this circulating 

 medium and of the shells from which it was derived. He 

 remarks that the durability and ease of manipulation of shells 

 have long caused them to be employed in domestic intercourse 

 and trade; and, among these, he first enumerated the common 

 clam of the eastern coast of the United States, the purple 

 portion of which constituted the wampum, or one class of 

 their money, w^iile another was made from the axes of a spe- 

 cies oi Pyrula. In each shell about half an inch in diameter 

 of the inside is of this purple color, and this was converted 

 into beads, which they called SuckanhocJc, or black money, 

 and had twice the value of their white money, or wampum 

 proper, which was made of the MetcmhocJc or Pyrula. This 

 was used not only among the Indians, but among the whites; 

 and it is remarked that the solid cash with which the sala- 

 ries of ministers were formally paid included black and white 

 wampum. 



The money of the west-coast Indians is a species of tusk 

 shell, or Dentallum^ resembling a hollow elej^hant's tusk, the 

 worth depending upon the length of the shell. These are 

 strung on cords and worked up in various forms of beaded 

 and other ornaments, having a distinct value among the In- 

 dians, according to the size of the shell and their number, 

 quite as fixed as that of the specie or the paper money of the 

 United States. The use of the money cowry in Africa is 

 well known, many tons of the shells being annually imported 

 to Great Britain, and again exported for barter with the na- 

 tive tribes. San Francisco Bulletin^ July 11, 1873. 



TRANSLATIONS OF ASSYEIAN AND EGYPTIAN TEXTS. 



The Society of Biblical Archaeology has lately undertaken 

 to publish a series of translations of all the important Assyr- 

 ian and Egyptian texts which exist in the various collections 

 of England and the Continent, thus presenting in the English 

 tongue the remains of the oldest and most authentic litera- 

 ture in the world. Nciture remarks that nearly all the prin- 

 cipal translators have offered their services for this purpose, 



