early inhabitants--skulls, ribs, bones of men and animals, a child's
thighbone inserted in a spiral of brass wire, several stags' horns,
beautifully-formed dishes and vessels, some of them painted, probably
of Chinese origin; striped bracelets, of a soft, gypseous, copper-red
rock, gleaming as if they were varnished; [122] small copper knives,
but no iron utensils; and several broad flat stones bored through
the middle; [123] besides a wedge of petrified wood, embedded in a
cleft branch of a tree. The place, which to this day may be easily
recognized in a hollow, might, by excavation systematically carried on,
yield many more interesting results. What was not immediately useful
was then and there destroyed, and the remainder dispersed. In spite of
every endeavor, I could obtain, through the kindness of Señor Fociños
in Naga, only one small vessel. Similar remains of more primitive
inhabitants have been found at the mouth of the Bigajo, not far from
Libmánan, in a shell-bed of the same kind; and an urn, with a human
skeleton, was found at the mouth of the Perlos, west of Sitio de Poro,
in 1840. At the time when I wrote down these statements of the priest,
neither of us was familiar with the discoveries made within the last
few years relating to the lake dwellings (pile villages); or these
notes might have been more exact, although probably they would not
have been so easy and natural.

[Ancient Chinese jar.] Mr. W. A. Franks, who had the kindness to
examine the vessel, inclines to the opinion that it is Chinese, and
pronounces it to be of very great antiquity, without however, being
able to determine its age more exactly; and a learned Chinese of the
Burlingame Embassy expressed himself to the same effect. He knew only
of one article, now in the British Museum, which was brought from Japan
by Kaempfer, the color, glazing, and cracks in the glazing, of which
(craqueles) corresponded precisely with mine. According to Kaempfer,