178 Shells as evidence of tJte Migrations. 



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

 vEginastan and Lydian coins of 750-700 B.C.) and inscribed 

 with their respective weights. These coins are known in 

 native numismatics as metallic cowries, Ho-pei isien, 

 because their shape suggested that of the once useful 

 little shells they superseded. They have also received 

 other quaint appellatives, as ' Ghost-heads,' Kwei-ton ; 

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

 tsicn}''- The introduction of this and other metallic 

 currencies caused the circulation of cowries to disappear 

 gradually in eastern China, and in B.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 for currency purposes. Cowries, however, still con- 

 tinued to be regarded as objects of appreciation ; and in 

 B.C. 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 dynasty 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 cowry currency consisted of five sorts, 

 regulated as follows : — 

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



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



value 216 cowries. 

 (2) The bull shells ; 3 tsnn, 6 fen in length ; a pair of 



which was worth 150 cowries. 



1"= Lacouperie, op. cif., p. iiS; also "Catalogue of Chinese Coins in 

 Biitish Museum." London, 1892; and "The Metallic Cowries of Ancient 

 China, 6oo E.G.,''/"'""- J^"}'- Asiatic Soc, xx., 1888, pp. 428-439. 



1 ■ = The money cowry, C. iiioneta, before becoming fully adult, has 

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



i'* Lacouperie, op. cil., 1 892, p. 382. 



