304 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



this tortoise-shell money had an important place in the social usages of 

 the people. 



This ancient currency of the Ladrones was evidently the same with 

 the supposed bead-ornaraents of the Kingsmill-Islanders, except that the 

 latter use other shells instead of that of the tortoise. But, when the 

 nature of the commodity became apparent, some noteworthy inferences 

 were drawn from it. As has been already observed, some of the cus- 

 toms and much of the mythology of the Micronesian Islanders seem 

 to have sprung from communication with Northeastern Asia. This 

 peculiar currency takes us in the same direction. The most common 

 Chinese coins, their copper cash, have a hole through the center, are 

 strung upon strings, and disposed of by lengths. This money is in 

 use in the Loo-Choo Islands, midway between Mici'onesia and China. 

 In Beechey's voyage to the Pacific, speaking of the assertion hastily 

 made by Captain Basil Hall, that the peojjle of Loo-Choo have no 

 money, he says, " Our meeting with this peasant, however, disclosed 

 the truth, as lie had a string of cash (small Chinese money) suspended 

 to his girdle, in the manner adopted by the Chinese." In a foot-note 

 he adds, " These coins, being of small value, are strung together in 

 hundreds, and have a knot at each end, so that it is not necessary to 

 count them." 



But evidence still more remarkable is afforded by the very valuable 

 *' Monograph on the History of Money in China," which we owe to 

 Mr. Alexander Del Mar, late of the United States Monetary Commis- 

 sion, and author of "A History of the Precious Metals," and other 

 works. He mentions a curious fact recorded in the great Chinese en- 

 cyclopaedia of the Emperor Kang-he, who reigned in the early part of 

 the last century. In this work it is stated that " in ancient times the 

 money of China was of tortoise-shell." How far back we must go for 

 these " ancient times " is sufficiently shown, as Mr. Del Mar remarks, 

 by the fact that Kang-he himself possessed a cabinet of metallic coins 

 dating from the reign of Yaou, b. c. 2347 ; and the Chinese annalists 

 assert that metal coins were known in the time of Fuh-he, six hundred 

 years before the date just recorded. From this it might seem that nearly 

 five thousand years have elapsed since this tortoise-shell money was in 

 common use in China. But, from what we know of the conservatiA'C 

 temperament of the Chinese, it seems highly probable that many cent- 

 uries must have passed before the clumsy and burdensome copper 

 coins completely superseded the lighter and more convenient tortoise- 

 shell disks and slips. Cowries are used to this day, along with metallic 

 coins, in some parts of the East Indies. It is not unlikely that the total 

 disappearance of the shell-money from the currency of China dates 

 from the period when paper-money first came into use in that empire, 

 which is said to have been in the reign of Woo-te, about one hundred 

 and forty years before the Christian era. 



Some very ancient Chinese coins are still preserved in the cabinets 



