306 A NATURALIST'S WANDERINGS 



pleasing reminiscences of these simple people. We of course 

 very soon began to be able to hold some sort of converse with 

 them in their own language, which resembled that spoken by 



the Ke Islanders ; and through A , who had become a great 



favourite with the people, caressed and affectionately patted 

 by them in her wanderings about the village, we got to know 

 much of their inner life. 



We soon found that a great deal of the barter goods we had 

 brought wore of little use among these people. Only our 

 German knives, cloths, and calico would be tradeable. Our 

 beads they would not look at, they were too coarse and large ; 

 their taste lay in the small scarlet and blue sorts. I had 

 brought a good many English sovereigns ; they looked at 

 them narrowly and weighed them, but would not trade in 

 them. This I considered very strange, inasmuch as their most 

 valued possessions were gold earrings. The explanation, how- 

 ever, I discovered later. The Egeroris master, it seems, had 

 brought a quantity of false English gold made in Singapore, 

 using them as barter articles with the people on his first 

 voyages, and some of which they showed me. When they 

 came to beat out these coins the deception was at once discov- 

 ered, and during our visit it was impossible to pass a single 

 gold piece. Had the natives had the certainty that the coins 

 were genuine, they would have given many times their value 

 in exchange, and, being easily transported, they ought to have 

 formed our most valuable trade medium. We learned, too, 

 what caused us considerable anxiety, that the islands produced 

 practically no rice ; nor was sago, as used on tlie other islands, 

 to be had unless we could manufacture it ourselves from the 

 trees. The products of the island from which the natives 

 mainly obtained their food-supply were Indian corn, sweet 

 potatoes, and a few species of legume, which was all we should 

 have to fall back on if our own not very ample supplies ran 

 short. 



