2l8 G. A. J. VAN DER SANDE. 



have already been mentioned, but of more universal use as currency ail over Papua Tàlandjang 

 are antique beads. I have gathered some seventeen of thèse beads, of 8 différent sorts 

 (N os . 68 1 — 692, PI. XXIII, figs. 5 — 15). They have the shape of a low (short) cylinder, some- 

 times fiât like a mill-stone, sometimes bulging out like a cask. The latter sort often has a 

 faint ridge in the plane of the largest diameter, (see N°. 690, PI. XXIII, fig. 12; N°. 688 has 

 such a prominent ridge, that it looks like a double frustum). 



Thèse beads are ail made of coloured glas s, the hardness of which has been defined 

 by Prof. WlCHMANN between 5 and 5,5. A single one, N°. 688, shows several colours, but I 

 believe such are not considered to be so real as the others. Some are of a clear trans- 

 parent material (N os . 681 — 684), the others are only slightly translucent. The surface of 

 both species, however, has become dim by long use. Moreover, in most of the beads, the 

 surface shows many small holes, more or less filled with dirt, whilst deep in the interior, 

 bubbles are to be seen. In the transparent beads, dark blue, light blue and light sea-green, 

 it can be discerned, that where the fewest bubbles are found in the interior, as in the sea- 

 green ones, also the fewest holes are discovered on the surface. 



The semi-translucent ones are brimstone-coloured, vernal-green or light sky-blue; the 

 first named are generally covered with the little holes, looking like black dots, the green ones have 

 fewer dots, the blue ones still fewer. By the aid of a microscope, the actual mass of glass of the 

 brimstone-coloured ones, has been proved to be wholly colourless; the colour of the bead is 

 caused by little spots, lying in it, and by irregularly shaped, little pièces of an unknown material. 



The question how the t e c h n i c a 1 manufacturing of thèse beads took place, can 

 be answered with a high degree of certainty. Spiral furrows and folds occurring on 

 the fiât sides (N os . 686 — 688), prove that the mass of glass was not thin liquid during the 

 manufacturing, and the coloured spiral stripes (N os . 689 — 692), that the mass, moreover, 

 was not entirely of one colour, ergo not homogeneous of mixture. Thèse furrows and stripes, 

 are not interrupted at the central aperture, but seem to circulate round it, from which the 

 conclusion may be drawn, that the bead was not perforated after cooling, — as may be done 

 with a soft gimlet and hard grinding-powder (RlVETT — Carnac [1902, 7]), — but that the 

 hot, half liquid mass has been turned and cooled round a solid axis of other material. The 

 deepened, spiral furrows on the upper-plane and under-plane, moreover, prove that each bead 

 has been manufactured separately and has not been eut out of a longer glass cylinder. The 

 transparent beads which have no furrows or stripes, show the elliptical bubbles, with 

 their length parallel to the cir cumferen ce of the bead, proving,' that hère too, the 

 mass of glass was not thin liquid and that by turning round the axis, the spiral strata of glass 

 shifted along each other. Wear and tear, not only brought the bubbles to the surface, looking 

 like sharp edged, small holes, but also took away the superficial shining, which only 

 remained in the furrows. 



Sections of currency beads, at présent in the Mineralogical Geological Muséum 

 at Utrecht, prove what has been said above. N°. 5553 (PI. XXIV, fig. 8, i j l ), section of a 

 green bead, clearly shows the spiral arrangement of the stripes, lying more circulai - near the 

 centre, round the aperture. N°. 5551 of the same collection also very clearly shows the stripes. 

 N°. 5554, section of a yellow bead from Tobadi, is homogeneous, it however shows the typical 

 shape and position of the bubbles. 



