The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-03
WHERE GOLD is DRoss.
1t Would Not Keep One From Starving
in the Bismarck Islands.
(Chicago Times-HeraId.l


Every race in the world has some sort
of money, and as far back as archeolog-
lists have dug in the records of antiquity
they have never failed to find some thing
or things that serve as n standard of
value. To this day in some parts of At
RIGA, among some tribes of American In
dams. and in various South Sea Islands
the natives cling to their own money and
spurn an offer of silver or gold.
Almost anything may be used as basis
of exchange, when all traders accept them
at the same value and they pass current
in exchange for all other products,.J In
Palestine i'll the days of Abraham and
the patriarchs, cattle was the standard;
in Virginia during the coloYial period to-
bacco was the currency, ana at the same
time some Englandeps GSed Goldfish. In
AbysassniGs .sstettt was employed, rice..in ia
peh, silk in China and sugar in the West
-=Ihdies. Nearly everyone raised these
products and they served as a basis for
an estimate off, mans tangible wealth,
and were readily exchanged for what
ever else he might need. The custom
survives to- day N some parts of North
Carolina and Tennessee, where hides and
pelts and whiskey are the basis of eX-
change.
But these commodities, although legal
tender, were not really money in the
sense Of being coins. In olden times be-
fore silver and gold became the universal
standard of value, in fact before any
metal coinage at all was eXtant, all sorts
of things were employed as money. The
inconvenience of swapping commodities
became apparent and some natural form
Was by common consent Invested with
the representative quality and thus serv-
g ed the purpose in their traffic
Shells, in some form or other, have al
ways been favorite money with tribes
of men near the coasts. OF these that
are In the most general use is the cowrie,
or prop shell. which is found OH the Pa
cinc coast. Until very recently it was
the standard coin of Hindustan.. in the
Southern Pacific Islands, and on the coast
Oh AFRICA. "A mqR who wished to do bus
.esS g WIN natives had to have plen-
tiful supply of cowries, for they would
accept no other currency. 1t is said that
man who lived in Cuttark, India, built
him house worth 50 900 and to pay his
employees he spent 100000 of these
shells. In every place on the coast of
Africa these shells were regarded as
money, and in spite of their abundance
were regarded rs valuable. They were
the financial medium of the African slave
race, and many poor negro has been
sold for greater or less number of cow
rieS.
Cowries are yet used as money in many
islands of the Pacific ocean which have
not yet been drawn into close commercial
relations with the world at large. A
traveller relates that starving man could
not buy meal with gold or silver to-day
in the Bismarck Islands, where Toxin
kin is king and cowries are legal tender
Gold is SO much dross, but "dewarra, :"
as 1t is called, made from cowries shells,
will buy anything. Small holes are Dor
ed into the Shells which are strung on n
piece of rattan about the diameter of a
piece of Irvine. Six feet of this money is
worth about dollar, and when the
possessor wants to buy dimes worth of
anything he chops section with a knife
and hands it over. Usually tile money
is worn in n coil around the natives neck
when he goes shopping. Many young
men borrow money from the chief to buy
wives, who cost about sixty feet of chain
each. In the Bismarck Islands pigtails
are also currency. The pig is highly
honored animal and his tail, beautifully
colored, adds value to any string to
which it may be attached. -