THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MONEY—DAVIDSON. 191 
shape of ornaments; and some writers have spoken familiarly 
of ring money as if it were really stamped and coined money 
such as we use to-day. In reality, the so-called ring money was 
an article of barter, circulating by weight. The ancient ring 
money of Egypt, and of the early Celts and Teutons, is repre- 
sented in Africa to-day by the coin currency of Calabar, and the 
rod currency of the Congo region, these being simply brass or 
copper wire, soft enough to be bent into the rings and 
bracelets, and other ornaments in which the African black takes 
delight. . 
When man advances to the pastoral stage, which he has done, 
and apparently can do, only in the temperate climes in which 
cattle can live, we find him estimating his wealth in cattle ; and 
naturally the medium of exchange adopted by such societies is 
that which all desire, and all in a measure possess. Most of the 
civilized nations have long since left their cattle currencies cen- 
turies behind; but still in their language and archeological 
remains, in their literatures and their religious customs, there 
survive traces of the days when cattle formed their standard of 
value and their medium of exchange. “It is very possible that 
kine were first exclusively valued for their flesh and milk ; but 
it is clear that in very early times a distinct and special 
importance belonged to them as the instrument or medium of 
exchange.’* 
The Latin term “pecunia” is derived from “ pecus,” a herd ; 
the English “ fee” is from the Anglo-Saxon “ feoh,” which sur- 
vives in the cognate German from Vieh cattle ; and rupze is said 
to be derived from the Sanskrit rwpa, which also means cattle ; 
and in the Book of Jobthe word Késitch (= a lamb) is employed 
to signify a piece of money.+ 
The veneration in which the cow is held in modern India by 
a people to whom the eating of beef is an abomination, is held 
by some to point back to the ages when the ancestors of these 
people in some more northern region had a great respect for 
*Maine: The Early History of Institutions, p. 149. 
tWilkinson ; The Ancient Egyptians, Vol. II., p. 151. 
