of the proprietor is appropriate, but so is any word that expresses assent to, or correctness of, any document to which the seal is attached. The remarks of Hamza, etc., refer probably to some modern Tahmuras, whom the Arab and Persian writers have confounded with the ancient Pêshdâdian predecessor of Yim (Jamshêd).

"There is no doubt that the two seals without inscriptions very much strengthen the scarab hypothesis; the addition of the rattlesnake tails (or whatever they are) is curious. Your Fig. 14 very correctly represents the sealing-wax impression from the seal No. 1321. You will see the extreme difficulty of deciding between the various explanations that may be advanced as regards these seals. The Pahlavi characters do not differ sensibly from the modern Pahlavi of the MSS., and can hardly be older than A.D. 600, but may be a good deal later. Some time about A.D. 600, Khusro Parviz had possession of part of Egypt for a few years, when there must have been much intercourse between Persia and Egypt. But it is quite as probable that the symbol on the seals may have come from the Buddhists of Afghânistân, which you would regard as a reflection of an Egyptian form from an Indian mirror.

"I have never seen a sitting figure of Buddha with the arms raised above the head.

...

be a

"The old idea about the triśūla in its skeleton form being a monogram (which Cunningham mentions in J.R.A.S. Vol. XIII. o.s. p. 114, but which I think I have met with at an earlier date) has just enough plausibility about it to make it a guess worth consideration, but I do not see how it can be really proved, although Cunningham's details may be slightly extended. Thus, if monogram, it not only contains the letters ↓ ya, I ra, ↓ va, J la, and 8 ma, which Cunningham identifies with the Sans. ya 'air,' ra 'fire,' va 'water,' la for ildearth,' and ma for manasa 'mind,' but it also contains ha 'sky,' 'heaven,' which may stand for the fifth element 'infinite space,' and also the whole of manasa 'mind.' But the whole idea is a mere guess, showing that there are more ways than one of imagining the origin of a thing, when we begin to exercise our imaginations."

The letters of the supposed monogram are formed thus:

Y y y y y ४ ४ ४

Dr. West, in a subsequent letter, writes:

"There are also other so-called monograms which have a strong resemblance to these, that require to be kept in view, such as the

岸

Y

or on the Indo-Scythic coins, many of which have figures of Zoroastrian divinities whose names have been lately deciphered in their Greek inscriptions by Dr. A. Stein (see Babylonian and Oriental Record for August, pp. 155-166). On many of the early Sassanian coins we have the crux ansata on one side of the sacred fire, and the or on the other. The latter figure makes one think of the mâh-rûî'moon-faced,' the technical term for each of the two stands upon which the Parsi priests lay the barsom, or bundle of sacred twigs or wires, during their ceremonies. The twigs lie in the crescent tops of two somewhat similar stands placed a little way apart, but the stands are usually tripods. In the later coins this degenerates into and, the plain crescent like that of the Turks; and the crux ansata is replaced by a star. The Parsi Rivâyats, or books of traditional religious memoranda, also give a figure like a star for a khurshêd-rûî (‘sun-faced '). It is very possible that the star (sun?) and crescent of the Sassanian coins have some connection with the star and crescent of the Paris seal. . . ."

Several arguments may be used against the theory that the Buddhist triśūla is a monogram formed of a number of the letters used in old Pali, one of the strongest of which is that the symbol, or something exceedingly like it, was in general use, as I have shown in my former article, in Western Asia and Eastern Europe, and that, so far as is yet known, the ancient Indian alphabet of Asoka was confined to India. It can hardly be imagined that a symbol in use in Phoenicia would have been derived from a combination of letters in an obscure Indian alphabet. It might, indeed, be argued, vice versâ, that the Indian alphabet was an ingenious combination of strokes and curves derived from the form of the sacred symbol in common use; for if the form be examined, and pulled to pieces, hardly a letter of that alphabet can be pointed to that is not contained therein.

It will be noticed that Professor Darmesteter and Dr. West have set aside, at least for the present, the theory that either the figure on the gem or the legend to the side of it

have anything to do with Buddha, while the discovery of the two new gems with similar figures, hitherto unpublished, does much to strengthen the scarab hypothesis. It does so for the reason that the members opposite to those enclosing the circle or ball have additions to them, wanting in the seal with the legend. I venture to submit for consideration the following explanation of the "rattlesnake tails," as they are called by Dr. West. The usual figure of the scarab, as depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphs (J.R.A.S. Vol. XVIII. p. 398, Fig. 11), shows on the upper pair of legs certain side marks, intended doubtless to represent the claws on the legs. The ball of dung rolled up by the animal should be between the hind legs if anywhere, i.e. the lower limbs in the sculptures. In engraved examples from Phoenicia and Cyprus, for some reason, the ball is depicted as between the upper pair of legs (id. Figs. 12, 13), and it is so in the seal at present under discussion (id. p. 399, Fig. 14). Hence the lower limbs here take the place of the upper limbs in the hieroglyphic scarab, i.e. the limbs that bear at the sides the imitation of claws. It appears to me, therefore, that the "rattlesnakes' tails" on the ends of the lower members in the two new Paris seals may be nothing more nor less than survivals of the claw-marks on the upper limbs of the scarab of Egyptian monuments, though these limbs in the seals are grotesquely twisted upwards in a manner quite inconsistent with the original design. This inconsistency is not, I venture to think, fatal to the theory, since symbols are constantly found altered and conventionalized in unforeseen and curious ways.

If an analogy to these claw-marks is wanted, the fingers of the hands of the seated and standing sovereigns on Ceylon and Chola coins, as depicted in debased coinage, may be cited in comparison. I annex examples taken from illustrations appended to Mr. Rhys Davids's "Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon."

The representation of fingers in these coins is not much less grotesque than those of the claw-marks on the Paris seals.

ART. XII.-The Metallic Cowries of Ancient China (600 B.C.). By Prof. TERRIEN DE LACOUPERIE, Ph. & Litt.D.

SUMMARY.

I. 1. Curious coins variously named in Chinese numismatic collections.

2. Great taste for numismatics in China.

3. Lack of criticism and knowledge.

4. Effects of this ignorance even in Europe.

II. 5. The Ants' nose money!

6. It is their oldest name in numismatics.

7. Native explanation that they were buried with their dead.

8. Sham implements used to be buried.

9. The Ghosts' head money!

10. They were really cowries made of metal.

11. Places where they were found.

III. 12. Figures, description and legends.

13. Wrong hypothesis of their having been issued by the great Yü.

14. Issued really in B.C. 613-590 in Ts'u.

15. Circumstances of their issue.

16. Reason why there are so few data about them.

17. Geographical and historical proofs.

IV. 18. They were a combination of cowries and metallic money.

19. Great extension and age of this currency.

20. Reason why these pieces were issued in Ts'u, a non-Chinese land.

I.

1. Several of the collections of coins made in their own country by intelligent and enthusiastic Chinese Numismatists contain specimens of a curiously-shaped scarab-like copper currency. They are variously called Y-pi tsien or 'Ant's nose metallic currency;' Kuei-tou or 'Ghosts' heads,' and finally Ho-pei tsien or 'Cowries Metallic currency.' The first two of these names, quaint and queer as they are, do not in the least suggest what the things so designated were intended to be. But when we consider that such denominations were applied by numismatists, who were unaware of

the circumstances which had led to the issue of this peculiar currency, we cannot be astonished that the uncritical Chinese scholars of former ages, being at their wit's end, should have adopted a sensational appellative to arouse the mind of their readers to the peculiarity of the case.

2. The taste for numismatics is old in China, though for want of opportunity, not so old as the love of antiquities. Collections of ancient objects and souvenirs among the rich families (not to mention those in the royal museum and library) were already in fashion at the time of Confucius. But metallic currency was then hardly in existence, and could not at that time therefore afford a field for the antiquarian taste for collecting ancient specimens.

1

It was a common habit among Chinese collectors to compile and publish catalogues of their collections; and this habit having been continued down to the present day, we are enabled to understand how the Chinese are in possession of nearly five score of numismatical works. Many more were not preserved to modern times, and have left no traces of their existence. The oldest of those mentioned in the later books, but which have perished in the meantime, would be nearly fourteen centuries old.2

3. The knowledge of historical minor events, and of palæography, combined with a spirit of criticism, which is required for numismatics, has almost always been defective among the Chinese collectors of ancient specimens of currency. Two or three recent works excepted, their numismatical books are indeed of a low standard. The natural tendency to imitation which has caused so large a part of their literature to be mere patchwork and mosaic, was necessarily fatal to the progress of that part of knowledge.

1 A list of them is given in the introduction to my Historical Catalogue of Chinese Money, from the collections of the British Museum and other sources (4to.

numerously illustrated), vol. i.

Ku yuen, who lived during the Liang

dynasty (A.D. 502-557), often quotes in the description of curious and rare speci

mens an older work, the

Tsien tehe, by

Liu-she, a work now

lost and of unknown date. Vid. 李佐賢Li Tso-hien,古泉滙 Ku tsiwen

huei, K. iii. f. 1.