linguistic irregularity, false analogy with _unicus_ would amply account for it. The use of a word meaning _nail_ to express the divisions of the foot is completely paralleled by the ancient Hindu system, where the _finger-breadth_ is termed _angala_, _i.e._ nail (cognate of _unguis_ and ὄνυξ). Next we come to the word _as_ itself, which appears in old Latin as _assis_. It is masculine in gender, which of itself is sufficient to throw doubts on its being a really abstract word. Can it be that we have a close relative of it in _asser_ a rod, bar, pole, which is likewise masculine in gender? Whilst one form of the name was specially confined to a small rod or bar of copper, the other was employed in a wide and general way. These two forms _assis_ and _asser_,-_is_ are completely analogous to _vomis_ and _vomer_,-_is_, a ploughshare. The meaning _rod_ is in complete harmony with what we have said about the Greek obol. All that is now wanting to make our proof complete is some evidence that the primitive Italian _as_ was really in the form of a rod or bar. The most archaic specimens of ancient Italian bronze money as yet described are those found at the Ponte di Badia near Vulci in 1828. These consisted (1) of quadrilaterals broken in pieces, weighing from 2 to 3 pounds each, stamped with an ox and trident, (2) cube-shaped pieces of copper without any mark, weighing from an ounce to a pound, and (3) some ellipse-shaped pieces for the most part weighing two ounces[426]. But in the British Museum are preserved a number of pieces of bronze which are roughly quadrilateral. A cursory examination showed me that, whilst two parallel sides exhibit the marks of a mould, the two remaining sides displayed unmistakable signs of fracture. Several of them are end pieces, showing the voluting of the mould on two sides and at one end, whilst the other end shows marks of having been broken (Fig. 48). Several of them bear stamps, or letters. There can be no doubt that these are pieces of short bars of bronze, which were afterwards cut up, as occasion demanded. The imprints on them prove them to be of comparatively recent date. If therefore the _asses_ still retained their bar shape after the art of stamping metal to serve as currency had come into use, _à fortiori_ the primitive _as_ of Italy must certainly have been nothing more than a plain rod or bar of copper, which passed from hand to hand as the obols in Greece, and the bars of iron and copper pass at the present among savages of Africa and Asia[427]. This was what was called by the ancient writers _the raw copper_ (_aes rude_), as distinguished from _the stamped copper_ (_aes signatum_) of a later date. The fact that early specimens of _aes signatum_, such as the _decussis_, bearing a cow on both obverse and reverse (Fig. 49), were still made in the shape of a bar, is a further proof that such was the original form. [Illustration: FIG. 48. Aes Rude.] [Illustration: FIG. 49. Bronze Decussis.]