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Gait, History of Assam, p. 272. Y2THE COINAGE OF THE MALDIVE ISLANDS. 31916 pone make 1 cawne or 1280 cowries.132 cawne and Jis 1rupee or 3200 cowries.They seldom rise or fall more than two Pone in oneRupee and that only in Ballasore at the arrival of theShips from Insulae Maldivae." uW. Hedges in his Diary (1683-1688) refers frequentlyto ships going from Bengal to the Maldives for cowries.When he visited these islands he saw " the Houseswhich were Magazines for yefor the King." 15cowries that were takenThese quotations will suffice to show that the sourceof the cowrie for currency in India was the Maldivesand had been from early times. Their use was notlimited to Bengal, but spread into Assam and Sylhet,where enormous quantities were in circulation until quiterecently. 16The larinwas one of the standard currencies of theIndian Ocean about the end of the sixteenth century.It appears to have been first struck probably about thebeginning of the sixteenth century at Lar in the PersianGrulf, from which it takes its name. It became anexceedingly popular coin on account of the purity ofits silver, and its use spread from the Persian Gulfdown the west coast of India to Ceylon. It was thusdescribed by William Barret, an English merchant, inhis account of the money and measures of Balsara(al-Basra) in 1584." The sayd larine is a strange piece18Gunda = Ganda or rati berry ; burry = bauri ;Pone = pan ;Cawne= kahan. Cf. Alex. Hamilton, Account of East Indies, Edin., 1827.Table of weights, p. 7, vol. ii., Oriya and Bengal," 80 cowries to a Poon ;32-36 Poon to a Rupee current."14Ibid., p. 218.15Diary, Hakl. Soc., 1887, p. 11.16Cf .