MISCELLANEA ETHNOG RAP MICA. 199 



The pan is of basketwork formed in an open pattern of narrow strips of bamboo. 

 It is circular and has a diameter of 26 cm. ; the concavity is not great. The pan is 

 hung from the beam by. four cords of the same make as the suspending strings ; they 

 are about 46*5 cm. ; each passes through the pan and is knotted below. Above the 

 four cords pass through a vertical hole in the beam and are then knotted together. 



Beams of this type are in common use in the bazaars of the Southern Shan States 

 and are not prohibited by law. Some are of better construction than the one figured, 

 the wood being often turned and polished and the suspending strings fixed round the 

 beam in grooves instead of being threaded through a part of it. The strings , how- 

 ever, are always fixed and of a limited number ; a loop moveable along a scale on the 

 beam is never used as in Indian and Scandinavian beams of the type.' 



No. 11112. Small Beam with Moveable Scale Pan (PI. XL.II, fig. 4; 



pi. X.LV, fig. 2). 



Taungthu name. — Kywe htoe. 



Locality. — Fort Stedman. 



This type of- weighing-beam is at first sight very like the bismer but is distinct in 

 that the position of the scale-pan relative to the centre of the beam is shifted to obtain 

 balance instead of that of the point of suspension. 



The beam in the specimen figured is 47-5 cm. long. It is of dark wood carefully 

 smoothened and polished (but not turned on a lathe) and divided into three parts 

 carved out of the same piece of wood. There are two terminal parts of equal length 

 joined together in the middle by a much shorter, barrel-shaped portion through which 

 the indicator passes. One of the terminal parts is conical in shape, the other thin and 

 cylindrical. The cylindrical part is pierced vertically in eight places, the outermost 

 hole being near the end of the beam. Five of the holes bear loops of string or of 

 brass wire (two are of the latter substance) ; the string loops are knotted, and the 

 wire loops turned over, above the beam. These are for the suspension of a scale-pan. 



The indicator is a flat strip of wood with parallel sides and cut off square above ; 

 below the beam it has a flattened " head" to keep it in position; it is not fastened 

 into the slit in the beam through which it passes by either pegs or adhesive substance, 

 but fits into it fairly tight. The suspender is a forked cylinder of wood, conical above 

 and ornamented both above and below by a number of simple parallel transverse 

 grooves. A string passes through the conical upper part ; the connection with the 

 indicator is effected by a common iron nail of commercial origin which passes through 

 both suspender and indicator near the base of the latter. There are several mepal 

 disks on the nail between the two. 



The scale-pan is of open bamboo basketwork and about 29 cm. in diameter. It 

 is suspended by three two-ply cords about 32*5 cm. long. These are knotted together 



1 Bismers with fixed strings are also used in the Malayo-Siamese villages of the eastern Siamese Malay States, but I 

 have no other evidence that this form of bismer is characteristic of the Shan or Tai peoples. 



For notes on and figures of Indian bismers see Annandale, Mem. As. Soc. Bengal, I, pp. iv-v, pi. C (1907), and 

 Chaudhuri, Jouni. As. Soc. Bengal, XI, pp. 9-16 ( 1915). 



