out 1778, cowries
constituted nearly the whole currency of the Province. The yearly revenue
amounted to 250,000 rupees, and this was entirely paid in cowries at the
rate of 5120 to the rupee. It required large warehouses to contain them,
and when the year's collection was complete a large fleet of boats to
transport them to Dacca. Before Lindsay's time it had been the custom to
_count_ the whole before embarking them! Down to 1801 the Silhet revenue
was entirely collected in cowries, but by 1813, the whole was realised in
specie. (_Thomas_, in _J.R.A.S._ N.S. II. 147; _Lives of the Lindsays_,
III. 169, 170.)

Klaproth's statement has ceased to be correct. Lieutenant Garnier found
cowries nowhere in use north of Luang Prabang; and among the Kakhyens in
Western Yun nan these shells are used only for ornament. [However, Mr. E.
H. Parker says (_China Review_, XXVI. p. 106) that the porcelain
money still circulates in the Shan States, and that he saw it there
himself.--H.C.]

[Illustration: The Canal at Yun nan fu.]

NOTE 5.--See ch. xlvii. note 4. Martini speaks of a great brine-well to
the N.E. of Yaogan (W.N.W. of the city of Yun-nan), which supplied the
whole country round.

NOTE 6.--Two particulars appearing in these latter paragraphs are alluded
to by Rashiduddin in giving a brief account of the overland route from
India to China, which is unfortunately very obscure: "Thence you arrive at
the borders of Tibet, where they _eat raw meat_ and worship images,
_and have no shame respecting their wives_." (Elliot, I. p. 73.)

[1] Baber writes (p. 107): "The river is never called locally by any other
name than _Kin-ke_ or 'Gold River.'[A] The term _Kin-sha-Kiang_ should
in strictness be confined to the Tibetan course of the stream; as
applied to other parts it is a mere book name. There is no great
objection to its adoption, except that it is unintelligible to the
inhabitants of the banks, and is liable to mislead travellers in
search of indigenous information, but at any rate it should not be
supposed to asperse Marco Polo's accuracy. _Gold River_ is the local
name from the junction of the Yalung to about P'ing-shan; below
P'ing-shan it is known by various designations, but the Ssu-ch'uanese
naturally call it 'the River,' or, by contrast with its affluents, the
'Big River' (_Ta-ho_)." I imagine that Baber here makes a slight
mistake, and that they use the name _kiang_, a