Miscellanea Etlr ) tog) -ap liiea. l 



PART III. 



Weighing Apparatus from the Southern Shan States. By N. Aistnawdale, D.Sc., 



1 F.A.S.B. 



[With Plates XLH— XLV.] 



The apparatus described in these notes is that commonly used for weighing agri- 

 cultural produce and dried fish in the markets of the villages situated round the Inle 

 Lake in the state of Yawnghwe. These markets are held every five days and are 

 frequented not only by both the civilized people and the hill tribes of the surrounding 

 country, but also by wandering Chinese merchants from Yunnan ; Siamese copper 

 coins of the reign of the late king Chululongkorn are current, but I did not meet any 

 Siamese people. 



The specimens described were obtained in February and March, 1917 either at 

 Fort Stedman on the east side of the lake or at Yawnghwe. With one exception 

 (No. 11112) they belong to types that were used indiscriminately by the different in- 

 digenous races that frequent the market. The most numerous of these races are the 

 Intha ( cf Sons of the Lake"), a Burmese-speaking people whose dialect is said to 

 support their legendary origin from Tavoy ; the Shans ; the Danu (people of mixed 

 Burmese and Shan ancestry); the Taungyo, a hill-tribe living east and north of 

 the lake ; the Taungthu, another hill-tribe living chiefly to the south and perhaps 

 allied to the Karens ; the Panthey or Mahommedan Chinamen of Yunnan, and China- 

 men from the Kiangsu province who have travelled up the Yangtse and then over- 

 land. Punjabis, Nepalis and Paharis from Kumaon in the Himalayas are also pre- 

 sent, but they are recent settlers in the country. 



The system of weights employed with all the different kinds of apparatus is in 

 theory at any rate that of Upper Burma. 



1 viss, peittha or peithha 

 1 tikal 

 1 mat 

 1 mu 

 1 pe 



100 tikals (3*65 lb.) 

 40 mats 

 2 mu 

 2 pe 

 6 ywe 



I do not propose to discuss either the geographical distribution of the different 

 kinds of weighing-beams described, or their mechanical significance- On the latter 



1 Parts I and II of these " Miscellanea " were published in vol. I of the Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 



1907. 



