222 V. A. Smith—Weight of Rati Seed. [Nov. 



and consists of two closely parallel horizontal lines, two tenths of an 

 inch long, brought back under the t and two preceding characters. 



Monogram la. "Weight, not ascertained, but seems to be normal. 

 The coin is oval, its length from top to bottom being *75, and its width 

 •68 of an inch. 



The fire-altar on the obverse, which is sometimes wanting in coins 

 of this type, is very distinct in this specimen. 



The Weight of the Rati Seed in Southern India. — By V. A. Smith Esq. 



The weight of the rati seed (Abrus precatorius) , which is the basis 

 of the Hindu metrical system, is known to vary in different localities. 

 General Cunningham's experiments fixed the weight for Northern India 

 as 1'8229, and Mr. Laidlay's yielded the practically identical result 

 of 1*825, which is the more convenient value to adopt for calculation. 



My friend Mr. F. 0. Black, C. E., informs me that in Southern 

 India the seeds run to a larger size. When at Hampi in the Bellary 

 District of the Madras Presidency, he was struck with this fact, and 

 took the trouble of weighing 672 seeds. The gross weight was 1440 

 grains, and the average figure is consequently 2*1428 grains. 



The difference between the weights of the rati seed in Northern 

 and Southern India seems worth noting, as it would have to be taken 

 into account in discussing the meteorology of the Southern coinages, 

 should such a discussion be undertaken. 



On the Assurs — By W. H. P. Driver Esq. 



Quite lately I have come upon a variety of stone beads which 

 have been washed out of the ground, and which the villagers tell me 

 their ancestors informed them were made and worn by mythological 

 people called Assurs. There are no Assur settlers near the villages 

 where the beads were found, the population being Uraon and having 

 no knowledge whatever of the existence of the Assur tribe, who live 

 in the extreme west of this district. 



As the Assurs themselves say they come from the east, I am 

 inclined to think they are descendants of the mythological Assuras 

 of the Puranas, and had at one time reached an advanced state of civi- 

 lization, of which they have now lost all traces. 



Coins similar in size and shape to these* were found in fields with 

 stone beads, pieces of iron and thick tiles, but I do not send them, as 

 owing to exposure and the ignorant people who found them having tried 

 to polish them up, the original marks have been almost all obliterated. 



These beads, coins &c. were not all found in the same spot but in 

 different parts of the same fields. 



* Yiz. Two silver coins forwarded by Mr. Driver to the Secretary. 



