These coins are not minted on the island, nor has any addition been made to the supply of them for a number of years. They were originally fashioned in the Pelao Islands, and brought thence to Uap in canoes over a stretch of four hundred miles of ocean. A very large fei could not be changed into smaller coin without seriously disturbing the currency of the island. The owner of one of these twelve-foot masses of wealth is a sort of J.P. Morgan. Like the man with the million dollar bill in Mark Twain's story, he does not need to break his money in order to pay for anything he may buy, but readily secures all that he desires on credit. It speaks volumes for the honesty of the islanders that all this stone money is left out of doors standing against the sides of the huts. The annals of Uap do not contain a single record of the theft of a fei, but perhaps the difficulty of disposing of such unwieldy cash may be a potent factor in the matter. Not only is the ownership of a large fei equivalent to the command of an unlimited amount of currency, but abstract possession seems to entail the same advantage. Many years ago a canoe carrying one of these large stones was sunk a few miles off the island. Although the fei went to the bottom of the ocean and has lain there ever since, the man to whom it was consigned enjoyed all the advantages that would have accrued from its delivery to him. During his lifetime he was accredited one of the wealthiest men of Uap. Not only that, but he bequeathed his interest in the submerged fei to his son, and it has been passed on in like manner through four or five generations, securing all the advantages of substantial wealth to each. MR. LAWYER: Metal of some kind has been used as far back as the records of time go, and strange as it may seem, gold was the first metal to be used as well as the first to be discovered, as a standard of value, or measure of value. Iron was used in Sparta, spikes in Central Africa, nails in Scotland, lead in Burmah, copper, tin and silver in Rome. Silver and gold were used in China a thousand years ago. In her palmy days gold bracelets and rings were weighed out in Egypt, measuring value. For the past two hundred years there has been a distinct evolution of the world's present standard of value going on, sometimes it has been gold, sometimes it has been silver, sometimes nations have tried to have both. During the last hundred years the struggle to use both has gone on persistently until within the last twenty-five or thirty years. William A. Shaw states that in France during a period of one hundred years, the ratio between gold and silver had been changed one hundred and fifty times. The controversy of this period has well been called the "Battle of the Standards."