162 TRAVELS IN THE EAST INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 



ing for inontlis, and even years, in tlieir miserable 

 dwellings. Here many perfect specimens of tlie 

 ricMy - colored Cassis fiammea appeared, and also 

 tliat strangely-marked sliell, the Cypreea mappa^ or 

 " map cowry," so named from the irregular light- 

 colored line over its back where the two edges of 

 the mantle meet when the animal is fully expanded. 

 They had crawled into the huhus that had been 

 sunk for fish at a depth of several fathoms. 



The trading was carried on only in Malay, but 

 when I offered a price, which was higher or lower than 

 they had expected, they frequently consulted with 

 each other in their own peculiar dialect or hahasa. 

 This the opziener, who was a native of the city of 

 Amboina, was as totally unable to understand as I. 

 He also assured me that even the natives at Lariki, 

 jfrom which we had walked in half an hour, could 

 only understand an occasional word of the haliasa of 

 this callage, and that the people of neither village 

 could understand a word of the haliasa of Assilulu, 

 two or three hours' walk beyond Lariki. In fact, as 

 a rule, every community that is under one rajah, and 

 this is generally but one village, has its own peculiar 

 dialect, which is so different from the dialects of 

 every adjoining village, that all are obliged to learn 

 Malay in order to carry on any trade or hold any 

 communication with their nearest neighbors. The 

 haliasa is never a wi'itten language, and appears to 

 be constantly changing, for, at the city of Amboina, 

 the natives have completely lost their dialect since 

 the foreigners settled among them, and now can only 

 speak with each other in Malay. The great diver- 



