1879.] C. J. Rodgers— The Copper Coins of Kashmir. 279 



the mimic for the time. On looking at his finger Bopya discovered that he 

 had lost his ring. Nothing disconcerted he took his stick and threw it on 

 the running stream and ordered the boatmen to row home. Arrived there he 

 ordered his servants to go and bring his ring telling them that he had put his 

 stick on the water where it fell. One is reminded on reading this of the Irish- 

 man who dropped the ship's tea-kettle overboard in Dublin harbour. He 

 cut a mark in the side of the ship where it fell. When the ship arrived 

 off Cork, he asked the Captain whether if anything were lost he knew 

 where it was ? We may imagine the answer. Pat said, " Well, you know 

 the tay kettle is at the bottom of Dublin harbour, and the ship's side has a 

 mark on it to enable us to judge where it fell." 



I regret that up to the present I have seen no coin of Ratangiri who 

 is said to have been the first Sultan of Kashmir. He was a second Solomon. 

 One day two mares foaled. The foal of one died. The foal of the other 

 took to both mai'es with equal affection. The owners could not tell whose 

 foal had died and whose was the living foal. They came to Ratangiri. 

 He ordered them to throw the living foal from a bridge into the water, the 

 mare that followed it was to be adjudged the mother. 



Of Yaskara it is written that in his days thieves and highwaymen were 

 nowhere to be seen. Shops and houses were left open at night. It seems 

 a pity that this king, whose rule was as effective as that of our own Alfred 

 who preceded him by only half a century, should have seen fit to leave the 

 scene he had graced so long, to hide himself like a second Charles V. in a 

 monastery, or rather I expect in some jungle as an ascetic. 



Now for a few words about the coins themselves. Both obverse and 

 reverse have crowned figures on them. The figure on the obverse is proba- 

 bly that of the king. But the face is in nearly every case more like that 

 of an ass or bullock. There are large earrings in every instance. Round 

 the waist are apparently tw T o bands. The waist compared with the shoul- 

 ders and chest is very thin. Mountaineers to the present day wear a rope 

 round the waist. This figure is always seated, the legs being disposed of 

 in a peculiar fashion. Sometimes they are hidden in the skirts, sometimes 

 bare, and in one case the ancles have anklets on them (see figs. 22 and 24). 

 The name comes on the obverse, and is generally divided into two parts by 

 the figure. Sometimes Sri is present on the left of the figure and the name 

 commences on the right. Sometimes Sri and part of the name are to the 

 left and the remainder of the name to the right. Sometimes Sri is omitted 

 and the name occupies both sides of the figure. The figure has a canopy 

 over the crown. This is shown very well in some specimens of Jaga Deva, 

 lately obtained from a heap of about two hundred. (See figs. 23, 24.) 



The reverse has a figure crowned. But the earrings give way to four 

 dots which may represent jewels in the ear as worn by women. This figure 



