ssel of aqua-fortis, which puts
their accuracy to the test. The parcels or bulses in which the gold is
packed up are formed of the integument that covers the heart of the
buffalo. This has the appearance of bladder, but is both tougher and more
pliable. In those parts of the country where the traffic in the article
is considerable it is generally employed as currency instead of coin;
every man carries small scales about him, and purchases are made with it
so low as to the weight of a grain or two of padi. Various seeds are used
as gold weights, but more especially these two: the one called rakat or
saga-timbangan (Glycine abrus L. or Abrus maculatus of the Batavian
Transactions) being the well-known scarlet pea with a black spot,
twenty-four of which constitute a mas, and sixteen mas a tail: the other
called saga-puhn and kondori batang (Adenanthera pavonia, L.), a scarlet
or rather coral bean, much larger than the former and without the black
spot. It is the candarin-weight of the Chinese, of which a hundred make a
tail, and equal, according to the tables published by Stevens, to 5.7984
gr. troy; but the average weight of those in my possession is 10.50
grains. The tail differs however in the northern and southern parts of
the island, being at Natal twenty-four pennyweights nine grains, and at
Padang, Bencoolen, and elsewhere, twenty-six pennyweights twelve grains.
At Achin the bangkal of thirty pennyweights twenty-one grains, is the
standard. Spanish dollars are everywhere current, and accounts are kept
in dollars, sukus (imaginary quarter-dollars) and kepping or copper cash,
of which four hundred go to the dollar. Beside these there are silver
fanams, single, double, and treble (the latter called tali) coined at
Madras, twenty-four fanams or eight talis being equal to the Spanish
dollar, which is always valued in the English settlements at five
shillings sterling. Silver rupees have occasionally been struck in Bengal
for the use of the settlements on the coast of Sumatra, but not in
sufficient quantities to become a general currency; and in the year 1786
the Company contracted with the late Mr. Boulton of Soho for a copper
coinage, the proportions of which I was desired to adjust, as well as to
furnish the inscriptions; and the same system, with many improvements
suggested by Mr. Charles Wilkins, has since been extended to the three
Presidencies of India. At Achin small thin gold and silver coins were
formerly struck a