178 S/icl/s as evidence of tlie Migrations. 



sizes of small coins, bean-shaped (in the fashion of the 

 ^gin.ttan and Lydian coins of 750-700 r..C.) and inscribed 

 with their respective weights. These coins are known in 

 native numismatics as metallic cowries, Ho-pei tsieu, 

 because their shape suggested that of the once useful 

 little shells they superseded. They have also received 

 other quaip.t appellatives, as ' Ghost-heads,' Kwei-ton ; 

 ' Ghost-faces,' Kivei-lien ; and ' Ants'-noses money,' Y-pi 

 tsioi}"'' The introduction of this and other metallic 

 currencies caused the circulation of cowries to disappear 

 graduall}' in eastern China, and in ]!.c. 221, the king of 

 Ts'in, having assumed the title of She Hwang-ti, "the 

 first universal Emperor," issued an order forbidding hence- 

 forth the use of gems, pearls, tortoise-shells, cowries and 

 tin f(jr currency purposes. Cowries, however, still con- 

 tinued to be regarded as objects of appreciation ; and in 

 i;.r. 179 we find the king of Nan-yueh sending as presents 

 to the Chinese emperors 500 purple cowries^'"' along with 

 other gifts. At the end of the First Han d\'nasty an 

 attempt was made by Sin Wang Mang, the usurper (a.D. 

 9-22), to revive the circulation of cowries and tortoise- 

 shells, but little success rewarded his efforts. According 

 to Lacouperie,''^ the cowr\- currenc}- consisted of five sorts, 

 regulated as follows : — - 

 "(i) The great shells ; 4 tsnn or inches, 8 fen or loths 



in length ; two of which formed a pang or pair ; 



value 216 cowries. 

 {2) The bull shells ; 3 tsiin, 6 fen in length ; a pair of 



which was worth 150 cowries. 



'"- Lacoupcrie, op. cii., p. iiS; also "Catalogue of Chinese Coins in 

 British Museum." London, 1892: and ''The Metallic Cowries of Ancient 

 China, 600 \i.C.,'' Jottrn. Roy. Asiatic Soc, xx., i88S, pp. 42S-439. 



^"* The money cowry, C. monela, before becoming fully adult, has 

 a deep purple back, and probably these were the objects sent. 



^"■' Lacouperie, op. tit.. 1S92, p. 382. 



