Our illustrations on p. 644 show the different shapes and sizes of these beads, which were made in London, but they do not exhibit the colours, which were an important feature. These bright and shining baubles tickled the savage fancy, and the same love of bright objects has been already noticed with respect to shell-money.
[Illustration: FEATHERS AS MONEY--RED PARROT FEATHERS.]
One of the quaintest of all currencies is that known as the Fishhook-Money, which can hardly be said to have even yet died out of use along the shores of the Persian Gulf. It is supposed that these Larins, as they are termed, originally came from Ceylon, and they consist of thin pieces of silver bent into the shape of a hook about an inch in length. In some cases copper is used instead of silver, but each piece is stamped with its value.
[Illustration: CONGO SPEAR HEAD AS CASH. THE BARB IS JOINED TO THE SPEAR.]
[Illustration: ENGLISH 2_d._ PIECE, WEIGHS 2 OZS.]
[Illustration: CHINESE CASH, CARRIED ON STRINGS. 1,000 = 3_s._]
The great merchants of the East are the Chinese, and the different forms of money they have brought into use do not strike us as being particularly convenient. The commonest of all Chinese moneys is the _cash_--a round metal disc with a square hole in the middle, the value of a thousand _cash_ not being much more than three shillings. These _cash_ are carried about in long strings, and the hole in the middle receives the string. This form of currency is developed from what is generally termed "key-money" or "knife-money."
[Illustration: PAPER POSTAGE-MONEY FOR BUYING STAMPS.]
Silver is the great medium of exchange in China and elsewhere in the East; and a regular feature of all cities and towns and even villages in China is the money-changer, who in return for so much weight of silver will hand out so many strings of _cash_. The silver used in these exchanges is called Sycee silver, and is apparently of any shape or size.
Sometimes the silver takes the bar or ingot shape, and is then termed _Nen_. The specimen on page 643 is an unusually large one, and weighs nearly a pound and a half. It was used as currency in Upper Cambodia, and is stamped on one side with a Chinese inscription which specifies the weight of the silver and also the name of the merchant who weighed it and affirmed how much it was worth.