WEIGIITS • AND MEASURES.
Mikyal, Kayl, . . ARAD. Aiyar, Kobin, . . PERS. Waznat, Kal, . . „ Peirnan, . . . . „ Taul, Map, . . . llisn.
The ancient linear measures of the Egyptians and the Jews were taken from a unit representing the human foot or arm. The cubit was the fore arm, e.c. from the elbow joint to the tip of the long finger. The cubit was subdivided into two spans, or six hand-breadths (palms), or 24 finger breadths (digits). The Jewish rod WILS CtIbitS. Several values have been assigned to the Jewish cubit, varying from 20 to 21 English inches. The Greeks and Romans measured by the foot (pes), the hand (palrna), the palm eraxatorz), and the finger (digitus), which mode passed down to the Romano- Germanic race& The Rotnans also had the pace, a military measure, and they and the Greeks had the cubit (cubitus), from the point of the elbow to the point of the middle finger, and the ulna ; and a fathom, tesa, toise, is the outstretched arms across the body. Similarly in the E. Indies, the finger, the hand, the forearm, and the outstretched arms, also the foot, the pace, and the distance to which human voice can be heard, have suoested the linear measures in use.
A variety of nominal measures, and of values given to the &AMC measure, exist in different parts of India, and even in the same district. Even in a single village a certain nominal measure will have half a dozen different values, according to which of 88 many different articles on the floor of the vendor in the bazar is about to be sold. It is a very general custom that there should be two series of weights employed in each shop, according to the transaction. When the shop keeper sells, he uses a maund of 21 lbs., but when he buys, this weight makes way for another of the same name of 28 lbs. In Azimgarh, for example, cotton and spice are measured by the seer of 80 tolas, ghi and salt by the seer of 95 tolas, while 96 tolas forms the rate for corn, sugar, and. tobacco ; the merchants themselves employing for their own purchases seers of 105 and 108 tolas. In Malda the seer has no less than fifteen different values,-50, 58, GO, 72, 75, 70, 80, 801, 91, 92, 94, 96, 100, 101, and 105 tolas. In Dacca, the relative values are 60, 70, and 82 tolas. Bliagulpur boasts of six.different
seers of 64, 67, 80, 88, 101, and 104 tolas respect ively. The merchants of Juanpur employ in their own dealings a seer of 112i tolas, but retail to the people in seers of 80 and 96 tolas.
Cotton is sold in Madras in candies of 500 lbs., but in many of the cotton districts the ca,ndy is but 480 Ibs. to the ryot. In Mysore, the same name represents 560 lbs., while in Pondicherry it sinks to 517 lbs., omitting fractions, and rises in the purchases of the merchants to 562 lbs. ; while, as if further to complicate this measure, brass, copper, and zinc are valued according to candies of 450 lbs. In Kandesh, sesamum seed is sold by the candy of 560 lbs., mustard seed in Gujerat is measured by the candy of 612 lbs., while 580 lbs. is the value for mustard seed in Sholapur ; and the territory of Goa measures its kokum by the candy of 784 lbs. The coffee grown in Mysore is estimated in reminds of 28 lbs. If bought by a Madras merchant, it is priced in maunds of 25 lbs. mid transmitted to him by railway in maunds of 82 lbs. ; but if bought for export from Calicut, it must be in maunds of 30 lbs. each.
The ordinary Madras maund is 25 lbs. ; in Ben gal it is 82 lbs. ; while in Bombay it is 28 lbs. In some parts of the western coast of the Madras Presidency 30 lbs. is the value of the same nominal standard, while the indigo and other factory agents of Bengal reckon by a maund of nearly 75 lbs. In Bombay the bazar maund may contain 40 or 42 seers, while the candy may contain either 20, 21, or 22 maunds, and varies in weight from 500 to 560, 588, or even 616 lbs. In Surat and its neighbourhood, the inaund may contain either 40, 41, 42, 431, or 44 seers, according to the article sold, or whether the transaction be whole- . sale or retail; and further, these seers themselves differ so much in value, that while the maund of 40 seers weighs 31 lbs. avoirdupois, that of 41 seers weighs 38 lbs. ; that of 42 see,rs only 39 lbs.; that of 43/ seers weighs 44 lbs.; akid that of 44 seers only 41 lbs.! In Travancore the maund is 32 lbs. In Cuttack salt is sold in\ rnaunds of 100 lbs.; the duty is paid in the Panjab on maunds of 80 lbs., and in Calcutta of 82 lbs.