152 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO 



tliat I liad seen many heads of those animals myself, 

 but never before had I heard that they carried such 

 circular jewels in their brains. " Have you ever seen 

 one of these taken out yourself? " I asked. " Oh, no ! 

 They come from Tana Ceram (the land or continent 

 of Ceram)." All who were listening, now fearing 

 that their rajah might be worsted in the discussion, 

 and being ready on every occasion to show that 

 they were loyal subjects, abruptly ended the argu- 

 ment by the unqualified assertion that every thing 

 was exactly as the rajah had said; and, as I was his 

 guest, I changed the conversation to another topic. 

 When I returned to the city of Amboina, I looked at 

 once in the " Rariteit Kamer," confident that Rumphius 

 would explain this remarkable and, as I afterward 

 found, common belief; for, though the rajah probably 

 did not believe what he said, his credulous subjects 

 doubtless never thought before of calling in question 

 such a generally-accepted notion ; such a query would, 

 in their view, have indicated a weak instead of an in- 

 quiring mind. This is one of the obstacles in the 

 way of advancement among these people. Rumphius 

 says that many rings were brought by the Portuguese 

 and sold to the natives, who prize them very highly. 

 This accounted for theii' origin ; and afterward, when 

 I came to travel over the empire of China, and no- 

 ticed how that people value similar rings of jade 

 (nephrite), and remembered that the coast of Ce- 

 ram, opposite Assilulu, was once frequented by the 

 people of that empire, who came to purchase cloves 

 and nutmegs, it occurred to me that possibly it was 

 from them that the Amboinese had learned to 



