TRADING WITH THE NATIVES. 145 



pie was extremely simple, my stock of Malay being 

 very limited. A small table was placed on tlie ve- 

 randa in front of the raj all's house, and I took a 

 seat behind it. The natives then severally came up 

 and placed their shells in a row on the table, and I 

 placed opposite each shell or each lot of shells what- 

 ever I was willing to give for them, and then, point- 

 ing first to the money and then to the shells, remarked, 

 Ini atau itu, " This or that," leaving them to make 

 their own choice. In this way all disputing was 

 avoided, and the purchasing went on rapidly. When- 

 ever one man had a rare shell, and the sum I offered 

 did not meet his expectations, another would be sure to 

 accept it if no more was given ; then the first would 

 change his mind, and thus I never failed to obtain both 

 specimens. It was a pleasure that no one but a natu- 

 ralist can appreciate, to see such rare and beautiful 

 shells coming in alive, spotted cypraeas, marbled cones, 

 long Fusi, and Mn/rices^ some spiny and some richly 

 ornamented with varices resembling compound leaves. 

 The rarest shell that I secured that day was a living 

 Terehellvmi^ which was picked up on a coral reef be- 

 fore the village, at low-tide level. Afterward I pro- 

 cured another from the same place ; but so limited 

 does its distribution appear to be, that I never ob- 

 tained a live specimen at any other locality. 



At sunset I walked out with the rajah along the 

 shore of the bay. Before us lay the great island of 

 Ceram, which the rajah called, in his musical tongue, 

 Ceram tana hiza, " The great land of Ceram," for in- 

 deed, to him, it was a land, that is, a continent, and 

 not in any sense a pido or island. The departing 



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