Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1889-11-15
SOME CURIOUS THINGS
ODD AND BEAUTIFUL OBJECTS
FOUND IN THE FAR EAST.


making fire. Very seldom, so far as we
observed, do they employ the proverbial
method of rubbing" two sticks-which
is not rubbing at all Near the coast
every man carries a bit of pitcher in the
siri box or bamboo slung at his waist, a
chip of a plate, English or Dutch, and
handful of dry fungus. Holding this
tinder under his thumb upon the frag-
ment of earthenware, he strikes the side
of the siri box sharply. and it takes fire.
But this method can only be used by
tribes which have such communication
with the foreigner as supplies them with
European goods. The inland peoples use
more singular process. They carry
short cylinder of lead, followed roughly
to cuplike form at one end. which fits
a joint of bamboo Placing this cylinder
in the palm of the left hand they fill the
cup with tinder, adjust the bamboo over
it, strike sharply, remove the covering as
quickly, and the tinder is alight OBJ
servers who take narrow view have de-
clared that the earliest art practiced by
human beings after they escape from
mere barbarism is pottery. These races
have long passed that stage, but we do
not recall any evidence that they use the
art. The fact is that, in countries which
produce the bamboo, earthenware is
hardly needed except for luxury. They
make charms and fetiches of dried clay.
MEASURING VALUES.
But in Borneo the Dyak peoples have
class of foreign earthenware singu-
larly interesting, AS Malays employ
brass guns for their currency, SO the
Dyaks employ antique vases In neither
instance do the actual "coins" pass from
hand to hand, since by brass gun a
Malay signifies cannon. twenty feet
long, perhaps, and a Dyak signifies a
vessel eighteen inches high or more.
These things are measures of value,
divided into imaginary fractions. There
are three varieties of this earthenware-
the gusi, which represents about $500
sterling, the naga and rusa, much less
valuable. The first is certainly Chinese,
and the last probably, but perhaps they
never came from the continent. At some
date unknown the north of Borneo was
occupied by a Chinese colony which
must have numbered millions. This
great time, when third part of the ISL
and was cultivated and densely peopled,
may have been 800 years ago. But the
first paragraph in the Annals of Bruni"
recognizes a powerful Chinese kingdom
of Batangan in the Fifteenth century
wa Dr N tp Il int f1,,t e..
ing theme, however. The Celestials
were exterminated about two genera
tions ago; an old friend of ours, the
great Chief Casing, still carried ten pig
tails attached to his sword of state
trophies of his fathers valor, probably.
Chinese merchants have tried again and
again to counterfeit the old jars, as have
the Dutch, but they never succeeded in
passing off their limitations. The Naga
may be Hindoo or Japanese, of very re-
mote antiquity; both peoples had great
settlements in the island at some time
beyond human memory. They have left
Buddhist remains of importance here
and there.
We secured no samples of these curl
GUS things, for reasons that have been
suggested. But the recollection calls to
mind some extraordinary objects of the
same class, in sense, which are. treas
ured on the other side of the world.
WONDERFUL BEADS.
The Aggry and the Popo beads, which
serve for jewels in West Africa, are glass
resembling earthenware of unknown
manufacture, of immemorial antiquity,
and beyond modern skill to counterfeit.
Most European nations, probably, have
tried their hand at initiating the Aggry
bead. The shrewdest chemists and the
cleverest artifeers of Venice and Bir-
mingham have done their best; the pot
ters of England, France and Germany
have exhausted their resources, but in
vain. 1t does not seem such a difficult
enterprise, however. The beads are ir-
regular in shape and size; many have
been sawn in two. They have an opaque
ground-ochre yellow in the most valu-
able species-but so various that this
point gives no trouble. A rough orna-
ment of circles in another hue runs
through the material from side to side or
end to end. Here, again, imitation seems
easy, to the craftsmen of Venice in par
ticular; but appearances are deceptive,
evidently. The Popo bead, less valuable,
but valuable enough, is blue glass, trans
parent, but SO manufactured that it shows
duh yellow against the light. These
things are all found in the earth; but, so
far as can be ascertained, they never
turn up in company with bones or other
signs of burial, which, to our mind, is the
most curious fact of all. That they are
ancient Egyptian is a certainty.
Many hundreds, if not thousands, were
taken in the sack Of the palace at Coo
massie, strung, in general, upon that
very pretty cord which we mentioned,
with gold nuggets beaten fiat, and cubes
Of coral and tufts of colored silk inter.
spersed. Very handsome they looked.
no doubt, upon tie smooth brown sl,in
of the royal danes \ pretty bracelet
from CoomGSBie is made of triangular
pieces cut from the rib of shell, snow
white, strung in groups alternately with
these small ilattened nuggets. Bat the
curiosities saved in that loot bear only
miserable proportion to those which men
of taste admired in the palace and the
big houses of the cabOceerS But ono stool