In only very few cases is there any certainty respecting their origin and accordingly a recent discovery on this point is worthy of record. Some monts ago Mr. Collins picked up from the ground at Bau a large glassy bead of unusual and characteristic appearance. The ground colour is black and it is decorated with numerous white rings of circular or oval shape: these small rings are fairly regularly disposed on the surface and do not touch each other.
A large number of the same kind of bead was taken in a gardern at Bako in 1905 and the collection was acquired by H.H. the Rajah, the majority being deposited in the Sarawak Museum and the rest in Cirencester Museum. These beads, though all of the same type, differ individually both in size and shape and also in the number and size of the white rings: that is to say each bead is separately made. They range about a diameter of one inch are roughly spherical, a few being elongated.
The bead found by Mr. Collins was sent by him to the British Museum - afterwards he generously presented it to the national collection - whence comes the information that it was made in Venice before the year 1,100 A.D. The bead is of great rarity and it was known to the British Museum only by a solitary speciment presented by H.H. The Ranee some years ago.
In this country it is known also to the native bead collectors on the Baram river and an influential Kayan lady, wife of Laki Batang, famed for her bead collection, states that this kind of bead is highly esteemed by Kenyan connoisseurs.
It is much to be desired that these and the other antiquities of this country should be properly investigated before the materials disappear forever.
J.H.
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