186 TRAVELS Df TEE EAST INDIAN AHCHIPELAGO. 



understood tow to take all their odd steps witli due 

 grace. The passion of these people for dancing ap- 

 pears to be insatiable, for at eight o'clock the next 

 morning a good proportion of them were still whirl- 

 ing round and round with as much spiiat as if the 

 feU had just begim. As might natui'ally be ex- 

 pected, these natives abhor all application and labor^ 

 in the same degree that they are fond of excitement. 



Sapama Bay is one of the most beautiful inlets 

 of the sea. Near its head is a bold, projecting bluff, 

 and on this rise the white walls of Fort Duurstede. 

 The other parts of the shore form a semicircular, 

 sandy beach, which is bordered with such a thick 

 grove of cocoa-nut palms that no one looking from 

 the bay would imagine that they concealed hundreds 

 of native houses. Here myriads of flat sea-urchins, 

 (MypeastTid'Wy almost covered the flats near low-water 

 level, and completely buried themselves in the cal- 

 careous sand as the tide left them. TIaousands of 

 little star-fish were also found in the same locality, 

 hiding themselves in a similar manner. Higher up 

 the beach among the algm were many lai*ger star- 

 Ashes, with the usual five rays ; but, as sometimes 

 happens among these low animals, one specimen was 

 prnvT-ded ^vith one aim more than his companions, imd 

 could boast of six. Where ledges of coral rock rose 

 out of the water, countless numbers of the little money 

 cowry, Cypma rrmieta^ filled the excavations formed 

 in this soft rock. They are seldom collected here, as 

 they are too small to be used for food, and these na- 

 tives never use them as a medium of exchange, as 

 has been the custom fi-om the eaiUest ages in India. 



