TRADE AND COMMUNICATIONS. 



219 



I must also draw the attention to the beads of a man's necklace (N°. 375, PL XIII, 

 fig. 3), made of white, semi-translucent glass, nearly spherical, supplied with a narrow hole, and 

 having from pôle to pôle some fourteen superficial ridges, as also occur on Bornéo beads 

 (NlEUWENHUIS [1904, PI. XIX, figs. 30 — -36]), ail the ridges separated by sharp furrows. The 

 section made of such a bead (PI. XXIV, fig. 7, */,), again shows the spiral drawing, in a sur- 

 prising way, and also, that the strata bend in at the furrows and out at the ridges. This means 

 technically, that the furrows are not made after cooling, by filing or cutting, but hâve been 

 impressed whilst the bead was soft, without cutting the strata. An expert of the glass-industry, 

 declared to me, that the manufacturing of this technical masterpiece was beyond his under- 

 standing. The above mentioned spécimens, however, do not belong to the "uberfangene" 

 beads, which are manufactured by successive immersion into différent masses of molten glass, 

 for in this way circular furrows and stripes are obtained, not spiral ones. 



Thèse currency beads, according to MOOLENBURGH [1904, 169], are found as far West 

 as PL D'Urville, as well among the coast tribes as among the mountain tribes. In Walckenaer 

 Bay they are called tètan, on Lake Sentâni tena or senai (— - old), the people of Sëkâ call 

 them tje, those of Humboldt Bay simbbni, although generally only the biue ones are indicated 

 by this name. They are seldom worn as ornaments, but sometimes in the nose, on combs 

 and on the front of men's bags on particular occasions, as on the bag of fig. 143, belonging 

 to the chief of Tobàdi. Only now and then 

 they hâve been found in the native bags, 

 together with the tobacco and the wrapper 

 of cigars; generally they are kept in little 

 bottle-shaped baskets (N°. 693, PL XXIV, 

 fig. 9), plaited from rattan strips and provided 

 with a cover. The beads are used when trading 

 with fellow-villagers and strangers. 



They dérive their value, motëri, only 

 from their antiquity, as NlEUWENHUIS [1904, 

 137] and SHELFORD [1905, 34] also stated 

 about the Bornéo beads. This value is indi- 

 cated by MOOLENBURGH [1904, 169] as fol- 

 lows, the names, as they are used in 

 H. B., mostly agreeing with mine : Isjâr (blue) 

 = fl. 5. — , Isjâr choi and tranjo = fl. 3. — , 

 Isjâr growanisori and suwd = fl. 2.50, simbbni 

 (azure-blue) and protauri = fl. 1. — , dainjansi 

 (yellow, big) and chrls (yellow, small) = fl. 0.50. 



Practically speaking thèse prices are of no significance, the people having very little notion 

 about the value of the Netherlands coinage, but the mutual relation may be derived from it, 

 and it agrées with a statement which I received at Asé, in other respects incomplète. From 

 an abacus (N°. 1270, PL XXIX, fig. 23), on which the beads, paid as the price for a bride, 

 were indicated by shorter or longer bars, the proportion of the value could be ascertained : 

 i° néchô (= isjâr, dark blue ; longest bars), 2° suwa (= suwd, light green), 3 simbbni (blue), 



Fig 



143. Bag ornamented with simbbni^ etc.; next 

 to it glass ring, liâs\ Tobâdi. 



