190 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MONEY DAVIDSON. 



greater units of value. In Fiji, whales' teeth were used instead of 

 shells, and white teeth were exchanged for red teeth somewhat 

 in the ratio of shillings to sovereigns.* In Africa ivory tusks v 

 and in the Solomon Islands dog teeth, which are worn in neck- 

 laces, express the higher values, while shells are used for the 

 smaller. The currency of the Solomon Islands includes many 

 different articles, and the value of each relatively to the others, 

 is carefully determined. The currency table, as set forth by 

 Mr. Cook.-f- is : 



10 cocoanuts = 1 string of white money. 



10 strings of white money = 1 string of red money, or 



= 1 dog tooth. 



10 strings of red money = 1 string dolphins' teeth. 



10 strings of dolphins' teeth = 1 fine woman. 



1 mable ring (for ornament) = I good hog or 1 useful young man.. 



When man becomes a worker in rnetals, the primitive shell 

 ornaments are replaced by gold and copper, and silver ; and 

 much of the money used in Africa to-day is of this character. 



But man is a creature of customs, and the forms of his neck- 

 laces did not change to utilize the peculiar characteristics of the 

 new materials. Nuggets of native gold may have been here 

 and there threaded on a string; but there is little doubt that 

 man's first attempt in metal working consisted in imitating thfr 

 old shell ornaments, and in imitating those shell ornaments 

 which had come to be used as money. In Siam there are silver 

 coins in the shape of shells ; and in China we have a copper 

 coin known as a Dragon's eye, which was fashioned in the shape- 

 of a cowry. But long before the precious metals were coined, 

 they were in circulation by weight, as they still are in the East. 

 The commonest form in which the metals circulated was in the 



Mevons : Money, p. 25. 



tFor these details regarding the Solomon Islands, I am indebted to a note in an 

 issue of the " Popular Science Monthly," which I cannot find again. In the same note 

 it is said that rope ends, ornamented with red feathers, to be worn about the waist, are 

 also used as money. 



