Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/153

Rh come from the residency of Buitenzorg and the estate of Preanger. Might not this lead to the conjecture, that the artificers, or the people, who introduced and cultivated the seeds of a higher civilisation in Java, did not use such stone instruments, but that they belonged to a previous and more primitive population, which in the Western part of the island preserved for a long period its existence and its independence, in opposition to foreign influence. But let us abstain from conjectures, and rather look forward for the solution of these and similar questions, to fresh discoveries, more accurate investigation, and a more perfect knowledge of circumstances and details.

With regard to the objects in stone, which were collected in Borneo by the late Dr. Schwaner, and also forwarded to the Museum, I am inclined to this general conclusion, that, even if nature had given them their present form, and art had modified nothing, they may, nevertheless, have served as instruments or ornaments among the earlier inhabitants of Borneo, as is evidently true with respect to many stones found in North Europe and elsewhere, and will continue to be the case wherever metal has not superseded the use of stone. If this be assumed, it may, perhaps, explain why, as is stated by Dr. Schwaner, these stones are still most carefully preserved by the present inhabitants of Borneo in bags, woven of cane, and suspended in the recesses of their dwellings among their talismans and amulets. In the same manner, some extraordinary virtue or sanctity is ascribed to these stone wedges in nearly all countries; and the Japanese, as appears from the statements of Dr. Jannsen, preserve these remnants of former ages with religious veneration in their chapels.