In Japan, at the time trade was opened, we know from Sir R. Alcock’s work the extraordinary fact that the proportionate value set upon gold and silver currency by authority was as 3 to 1.

(Cathay, etc., p. ccl. and p. 442; Lecomte, II. 91; Milburne’s Oriental Commerce, II. 510; Sonnerat, II. 17; Hedde, Etude, Pratique, etc., p. 14; Williams, Chinese Commercial Guide, p. 129; Timkowski, II. 202; Alcock, I. 281; II. 411, etc.)

NOTE 6.—­Mr. Lay cites from a Chinese authority a notice of a tribe of “Western Miautsze,” who “in the middle of autumn sacrifice to the Great Ancestor or Founder of their Race.” (The Chinese as they are, p. 321.)

NOTE 7.—­Dr. Anderson confirms the depressing and unhealthy character of the summer climate at Momein, though standing between 5000 and 6000 feet above the sea (p. 41).

NOTE 8.—­“Whereas before,” says Jack Cade to Lord Say, “our forefathers had no books but score and tally, thou hast caused printing to be used.”  The use of such tallies for the record of contracts among the aboriginal tribes of Kweichau is mentioned by Chinese authorities, and the French missionaries of Bonga speak of the same as in use among the simple tribes in that vicinity.  But, as Marsden notes, the use of such rude records was to be found in his day in higher places and much nearer home.  They continued to be employed as records of receipts in the British Exchequer till 1834, “and it is worthy of recollection that the fire by which the Houses of Parliament were destroyed was supposed to have originated in the over-heating of the flues in which the discarded tallies were being burnt.”  I remember often, when a child, to have seen the tallies of the colliers in Scotland, and possibly among that class they may survive.  They appear to be still used by bakers in various parts of England and France, in the Canterbury hop-gardens, and locally in some other trades. (Martini, 135; Bridgman, 259, 262; Eng.  Cyclop. sub v. Tally; Notes and Queries, 1st ser.  X. 485.)

[According to Father Crabouillet (Missions Cath. 1873, p. 105), the Lolos use tallies for their contracts; Dr. Harmand mentions (Tour du Monde, 1877, No.  VII.) the same fact among the Khas of Central Laos; and M. Pierre Lefevre-Pontalis Populations du nord de l’Indo-Chine, 1892, p. 22, from the J.  As. says he saw these tallies among the Khas of Luang-Prabang.—­H.C.]

“In Illustration of this custom I have to relate what follows.  In the year 1863 the Tsaubwa (or Prince) of a Shan Province adjoining Yun-nan was in rebellion against the Burmese Government.  He wished to enter into communication with the British Government.  He sent a messenger to a British Officer with a letter tendering his allegiance, and accompanying this letter was a piece of bamboo about five inches long.  This had been split down the middle, so that the two