IV.

18. The causes which brought the metallic cowries into use need no great penetration to be understood. Their curious shape was an attempt at combining the time-honoured appearance of the currency with the metallic, the material advantage of which had been made obvious by the metal coinage in use in the neighbouring Chinese states towards the north.

19. Cowrie-shells as a medium of exchange in the Far East were known before historical times. They were employed in that way by some of the Pre-Chinese populations of the Flowery Land, as early as the time of the entrance of the Chinese into the country by the N.W., i.e. in the twenty-third century before the Christian era. And it is in Chinese literature that we find the most ancient allusions to them,' but we do not know how such a curious custom began. It is only by inferring their having been used as ornaments on headdresses and on embroidered cloth, that we may suppose that this is the reason why they came to be valued, and asked for. Their use extended later on from Australasia and Southern China to India,2 to Tibet and to Africa. The Chinese, which means for many centuries a small portion only of the present China proper, regulated their circulation as well as that of the tortoise, and other shells. The introduction of metallic currency caused the circulation of cowries to disappear gradually in the Chinese states. And history has preserved us the date of 338 B.C. as that of the final interdiction of the cowrie-currency (under the rule of the Prince of Ts'in in N.W. China) because of the irregular

1 Some more information has been given in my notice on Chinese and Japanese money, pp. 190-197-235 of Coins and Medals, their Place in History and Art, by the authors of the British Museum Official Catalogue (London, Elliot Stock, 1885).

2 They were not known in N. India in ancient times, at least they are not mentioned in the Code of Manu, nor in that of Yajnavalkya (about the Christian era). Cf. Edward Thomas, Ancient Indian Weights (Marsden's Numismata Orientalia, new edit. part i.), p. 20. When the Muhammadans conquered Bengal early in the thirteenth century, they found the ordinary_currency composed exclusively of cowries. Cf. the references in Colonel H. Yule's Glossary, p. 209.

and insufficient supply of these and other shells. For centuries their circulation had been contemporaneous with that of the metallic money in the various Chinese States, and it lasted not a few centuries afterwards in some out-of-the-way corners, as, for instance, it is still doing in Bástar (N. India),2 and some parts of Indo-China.

20. The State of Ts'u, where the issue of the metallic cowries took place, was a non-Chinese one; while in the north it was conterminous, north of the Yang-tze Kiang, with the Chinese dominion, and was gradually falling more and more under the influence of Chinese civilization. In the east and south it was in relationship with independent populations belonging to the Indo-Pacific races. Among them the cowries formed the chief currency, with so much more facility that the supply was at hand, as it was derived chiefly from the Pescadores Islands,3 between Formosa Sea and the mainland.

1 Sin Wang Mang, usurper (A.D. 9-22), at the end of the First Han dynasty, endeavoured, without success, to revive the circulation of cowries and shells. Cf. his enactments in my Historical Catalogue of Chinese Money, vol. i. PP. 381-383. 2 Dr. W. W. Hunter, Imperial Gazetteer of India. Col. H. Yule. A. C. Burnell, Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words, pp. 208-209.

3 Some also were found formerly on the shores of the Shantung peninsula. Cf. A. Fauvel, Trip of a Naturalist to the Chinese Far East, in China Review, 1876, vol. iv. p. 353. At the International Fisheries Exhibition, London, 1883, the Pescadores and Lambay Island sent 44 species of cowries. Cf. Chinese Catalogue, pp. 29, 63-65. They are found in abundance on the shores of the Laccadives and Maldive Islands, African coast of Zanzibar, etc., the Sulu Islands, etc. Balfour, The Encyclopedia of India, s. v.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON, May, 1888.

Cf. Ed.

440

CORRESPONDENCE.

KALIDASA IN CEYLON.

British Museum, London,

23rd May, 1888.

SIR,-Referring to your note in our January issue on Kālidāsa, I wish to call attention to two recent publications, copies of which I have before me, both clearly founded on the same curious legend.

(1) The Historical Tragedy entitled Kālidās by Simon De Silva Seneviratna, Muhandrum, [Sinhalese title:] Kālidās nritya pota (pp. 22, F. Cooray, Colombo, 1887, 8vo.).

(2) Kālidās Charitaya, Hevat Kālidāsa kavīndugē hā Kumarādāsa nirindugē da jīvita-kāvya (pp. 17, “Lakminipahana" Press, Colombo, 1887, 8vo.).

This last is a poem in 255 stanzas by an author bearing a name worth giving in full, if only to draw attention to the curious mixture of Western and Eastern elements prevailing in Ceylon, Heṭṭiyākandage Joseph Andrew Fernando [Joçap Endri Pranandu].

It will be of some service if readers of this Journal resident in Ceylon can institute inquiries from the authors of these works as to the exact historical or legendary material (MS. or printed) used by these authors in preparing their respective works.

NOTES OF THE QUARTER.

(March, April, May.)

I. REPORTS OF MEETINGS OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.

16th April, 1888.-Sir THOMAS WADE, K.C.B., in the Chair.

There were elected as Resident Members the Rev. Richard Morris, M.A., LL.D., and Col. Sir William Davies, K.C.S.I.

Mr. J. F. Hewitt, late Commissioner of Chota Nagpur, read the paper which appears in full in this Number, on the Early History of Northern India.

4th June, 1888.-ANNIVERSARY MEETING.

Sir THOMAS WADE, K.C.B., President, in the Chair. THE PRESIDENT had first to express his regret at the loss of two valuable Orientalists, Professor Fleischer, the distinguished Professor of Arabic at Leipzig; and Bhagvan Lal Indraji, the famous native Indian scholar and archæologist. He had, on the other part, to congratulate the Society upon the great addition it had received to its strength in the past twelve months. The Secretary would read to the Meeting a short memorandum showing the changes in its condition during several years, from which it would appear that the number of its members had never been so large as at the present moment. This increase of course was the more gratifying as advantaging the finances of the Society, whose position in this respect had been further benefited by revision of the arrangements affecting the printing and publication of the Society's Journal. The thanks of the Society were specially due to the Secretary, whose conver

sance with details of the kind had enabled him to effect a large saving in the expenditure under the head of printing, and a considerable gain under the head of advertisements. As regarded the progress of the Society towards attainment of the great object of its institution, the investigation and encouragement of Oriental Art, Science, and Literature, the President had no option but to repeat the observation which, within his hearing, had fallen from both of his distinguished predecessors, Sir William Muir and Colonel Yule, namely, that the achievements of the Society fall far short of what should be expected of it, regard being had to what is done by the Orientalists of other nationalities, and to the fact that, politically and commercially, England is more interested in the East than any of her competitors in Orientalism. A step towards improvement had been made in a proposition which the Council had had under consideration, the proposition to appoint two or more Committees which should respectively interest themselves in history, literature, etc., as Aryan or non-Aryan. The Council had further been considering the possibility of reviving the Translation Fund, a branch or affiliated department, by which in earlier days there were published, under the general superintendence of the Society, both Oriental texts and translations. The formulation of this scheme was also due to the Secretary, to whose activity and industry the Council could not exaggerate its obligations.

Lastly, the Council had been engaged in preparing a revised edition of the Rules and Regulations of the Society, which was now laid upon the table. The principal changes were four. In the first place it was considered advisable to place the election of new members in the hands of the Council, as is the case with most other Societies, and secondly it is proposed to create a new class of members to be called Extraordinary Members, and to be chosen from such of the Oriental diplomatists accredited to the English Government as would be likely to take an enlightened interest in the work of the Society. In the third place it was desirable, for the reason set out in the report, to raise the subscriptions of