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356 ANAM.
of every street. Riots and disturbances are conse-
quently very rare. Minor crimes are punished by
imprisonment, flagellation, and the caungue. Poly-
and are under no
gamy and concubinage are universal,
restriction ; but a man " seldom takes more than three
wives, one of which is always paramount : the children
of all are equally legitimate. The marriage-festival
lasts, according to the rank and means of the parties,
from three to nine days. Their colour for mourning is
white. In their funerals and funereal fetes, their mag-
nificent coffins, the superstitious selection of particular
spots for interment, and the festivals in honour of ancestors,
the Anamese copy the Chinese, or perhaps discover
an original affinity to that nation. Their dress,
too, bears a general resemblance to that of the Chinese,
prior to the Tatar invasion. Like the Chinese, they have
no real coin, except the brass (or tutenague} money called
sepecs (sapuca), rather smaller than an English shilling,
and very brittle : 60 sepecs make one mace, and
10 mace (600 sepecs) one quan or khwan. Both these
are imaginary money. In 1764, a quan exchanged
against a Spanish dollar, or two rupees.
The value
of 21 Spanish dollars ; n sepecs of tutenague, weighs
150 Ibs. This currency, therefore, is most incommodious.
Ingots of gold and silver, however, are the more
common medium of exchange : their value as money
is determined by an impression stamped upon them.
Their weights have the same denomination as in
China. The cattee is equal to a pound and a half
English, and 100 cattees make apicul of 150 Ibs. Their
bushel is equal to 39 quarts.
We have thus brought together the substance of the
information we possess relative to the Anamese, in this
place, because most of the observations were collected
at Saigon. From their vicinity to China, and the in-