I Only Saw Two Sorts Of Coin, One Of Gold, And The
Other Of Lead:
The gold coin, or mas, is of the size of a
silver-penny, and is as common at Acheen as pence are in England.
The
other, of lead, called cash, is like the little leaden tokens used in
London by the vintners: 1600 cashes make one mas; 400 cashes make
a cowpan, and four cowpans a mas; five mases are equal to four
shillings sterling; four mases make a pardaw, and four pardaws a
tayel. Hence one mas is 9-3/5d. sterling; one pardaw, 3s. 2-2/5d.;
one tayel, 12s. 9-3/5d.; one cowpan, 2-3/5d.; and one cash is a
two-hundredth part of a penny. Pepper is sold by the Bahar, which is
360 English pounds, for 3l. 4s. Their pound is called catt, being
twenty-one of our ounces; and their ounce is larger than ours in the
proportion of sixteen to ten. They sell precious stones by a weight
named masse, 10-3/4 of which make an ounce.
[Footnote 42: The Turks are called Rumos in India, because their chief
city, Constantinople, was called New Rome. Their tradition of Ophir is
more to be marked than this conceit of Rumos in the Red-Sea. - Purchas,
in a marginal note.
The Egyptians might follow this trade from the days of Solomon, but the
Rums, or Romans, could not, as they did not possess Egypt till long
after Solomon.
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