164 ^^^- VII.— A. Matsiimum : 



should have attempted to cater to their demand. In 1890, when 

 tlie late Dr. U. Taguchi and his party visited the Carohne Islands 

 on the sailing-ship Tenyu Mam, they saw two Americans engaged 

 in the manufacture of the stone money in Palau and transporting 

 it to Yap, wehere in consequence, the currency was suddenly greatly 

 inflated.^ This money is now not prized so much as formerly, as 

 ordinarily it cannot be put to practical use ; nevertheless, the 

 pieces are still precious in the eyes of the natives who do not like, 

 it seems, to have them even touched by foreigners. 



As to the value of this stone money, it is roughly determined 

 by measuring the diameter in spans, as above noted. Of course, 

 the value thus fixed cannot be accurate. We paid five yen for a 

 piece, 68 cm. in diameter, of fine quality and good shape, which 

 Ave brought home. We wore told that a piece of this size was 

 worth a pig weighing 45 kg. It is difficult to ascertain the exact 

 value of a piece. In the summer of 1915, when a party from 

 the South Sea Islands under Japanese occupation visited Japan, 

 the natives from Yap brought and presented * to the Minister of 

 the Navy a piece of stone money, 85 cm. in diameter and w^eighing 

 some 100 kg., which they said, was worth some 500 yen. The 

 Minister has since presented the specimen to the Tokyo Imperial 

 University, and it is now in the Anthropological Institute. It is, 

 however, doubtful whether the piece is of such high value ; it has 

 in all probability no fixed value. 



Smaller pieces of stone money are kept indoors, while larger 

 ones are laid against walls or coconut palms. Again, many large 

 pieces are seen on the premises of chiefs' or rich men's houses, 

 or in the compounds of club-houses (PI. XXII, fig. 2 ; XXIII, fig. 



1 H. Inone and K. Suzuki, " An Account of the Mariana and Caroline Islands " (in Japa 

 nese), Tokyo, 1893, pp. 78-81. 



