Use of Cowry-shells for Currency, Amutlets, etc. 179 
(3) The small shells; 2 ¢szx, 4 fez in length ; a pair 
of which was worth 30 cowries. 
(4) The lesser shells ; 1 ¢suv, 2 fez in length; a pair 
of which was worth 10 cowries. 
(5) The smallest shells (eypree monefe, or cowries), 
being smaller than 1 /swz 2 /en, were not fastened 
in pairs; each was worth three cash. Those 
which were smaller than six fez were not used 
for currency. 
The shells of groups 1 to 4 seem to have been un- 
doubted cowries, as in group 5, only larger, as the same 
characteristic Chinese hieroglyph denoting cowry (see 
Fig. C, p. 180.) appears against each of the groups. 
Unfortunately, except for dimensions, the particulars 
are lacking as to the species of cowries forming these 
four groups. 
If we may take the measurements as more or less 
approximating to English inches, it is possible to find a 
series of cowries inhabiting Eastern seas which would 
come within these dimensions. For example, Cyprea 
testudinaria (the “tortoise-cowry,” named by Linnzeus 
from its resemblance to the tortoise) might very well have 
served for group I. Of the others, group 2 may have 
been smaller examples of the same, or even Cyprea tigrts ; 
sroup 3 may have been Cyprea lynx; while group 4 were 
probably exceptionally large examples of Cyprwa moneta. 
The average length of the latter species is about one inch. 
Regarding the tortoise-shells re-issued by Wang Mang, 
Lacouperie informs us that ‘there were four different 
sorts, of various sizes and denominations, with different 
values, but the details have not yet been handed down to 
our time.’ It is not a little curious that the larger cowry- 
shells were also of four different sorts, sizes, and values. 
