CURRENCY AND COINAGE 185 



housing, clothing, and furniture. Thus they are in con- 

 stant and daily use, and they are employed for currency, 

 i.e. for measuring the value of other articles and as the 

 medium in exchanging them. 



I can give a strong instance of this from what I have 

 myself seen. On April 5, 1896, when I was in charge 

 of the islands, the people of Mus in Car Nicobar had 

 occasion to buy a large racing-canoe from the people 

 of Chowra Island. They proceeded to value the canoe 

 at 55,000 coco-nuts, but they are a lazy people and had 

 no intention of fetching such a large quantity down from 

 the trees in their possession. So they paid for the canoe 

 in a great number of articles, each valued in coco-nuts, 

 nearly all of which were in their possession as the result 

 of trading in coco-nuts with such foreigners as Burmans, 

 Chinese, Malays, and natives of India. The list of these 

 articles is interesting and goes to prove my point, but 

 I have no time to give it you now. It included domes- 

 tic animals, utensils and implements, cloth, beads, silver 

 articles, and even British money. This transaction in- 

 duced me to set the local Government agent to try and 

 ascertain the approximate value in coco-nuts of such 

 trade articles as the Nicobarese require for domestic and 

 other uses, and his inquiries produced a long list, from 

 needles at twelve coco-nuts a dozen and matches at 

 twenty-four coco-nuts per dozen boxes to Turkey red 

 cloth at i, 600 coco-nuts the piece. Now in this list 

 a two-anna bit, which is the eighth of a rupee, was 

 valued at sixteen coco- nuts, and the rupee itself at 100 : 

 but it will be perceived that eight times sixteen is 

 128. The reason for the discrepancy is that the little 

 piece of silver is used for one sort of ornament and the 

 big piece for another sort, and their value in coco-nuts 

 to these people depends on their value as ornaments, 



