Note note 1 — Chapter XXV · Mikula at the Christmas Festival

1 Being only eleven inches long (page 1).--Over a very large part of the Congo soft brass wire of 34 gauge is now, and has been for many years, the currency and the standard of value among the natives. This wire was probably, in the first instance, introduced and used for ornamental purposes, as binding round spears and knives, or beaten out into ribbons of brass for decorating the hafts of their best spears and paddles. At first the wire was bought in long lengths of so many fathoms, according to the needs of the buyer and the purchasing power of the article he offered the trader in exchange for it. Later they found it more easy of manipulation to have it in lengths of thirty inches, and these were shortened by those who had large numbers of them cutting off a half-inch from each one and melting the small pieces down for brass anklets, necklets, and bracelets, thus procuring their brass for nothing, i. e. cutting off short pieces from each rod and passing the rods again into currency at their normal value. So much of this was done that the thirty-inch rod was reduced to twenty-seven inches, and sellers of goods consequently demanded more rods of the shorter ones than of the longer lengths.