Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
bearded and hairy-limbed, but quite as light in colour as the Malays. They are an industrious
and enterprising race, cultivating rice and vegetables, and indefatigable in their search after
game, fish, tripang, pearls, and tortoiseshell.
In the great island of Ceram there is also an indigenous race very similar to that of North-
ern Gilolo. Bouru seems to contain two distinct races,—a shorter, round-faced people, with
a Malay physiognomy, who may probably have come from Celebes by way of the Sula is-
lands; and a taller bearded race, resembling that of Ceram.
Far south of the Moluccas lies the island of Timor, inhabited by tribes much nearer to the
true Papuan than those of the Moluccas.
The Timorese of the interior are dusky brown or blackish, with bushy frizzled hair, and
the long Papuan nose. They are of medium height, and rather slender figures. The universal
dress is a long cloth twisted round the waist, the fringed ends of which hang below the knee.
The people are said to be great thieves, and the tribes are always at war with each other, but
they are not very courageous or bloodthirsty. The custom of 'tabu,' called here 'pomáli,' is
very general, fruit trees, houses, crops, and property of all kinds being protected from de-
predation by this ceremony, the reverence for which is very great. A palm branch stuck
across an open door, showing that the house is tabooed, is a more effectual guard against
robbery than any amount of locks and bars. The houses in Timor are different from those of
most of the other islands; they seem all roof, the thatch overhanging the low walls and
reaching the ground, except where it is cut away for an entrance. In some parts of the west
end of Timor, and on the little island of Semau, the houses more resemble those of the Hot-
tentots, being egg-shaped, very small, and with a door only about three feet high. These are
built on the ground, while those of the eastern districts are raised a few feet on posts. In their
excitable disposition, loud voices, and fearless demeanour, the Timorese closely resemble
the people of New Guinea.
In the islands west of Timor, as far as Flores and Sandalwood Island, a very similar race
is found, which also extends eastward to Timor-laut, where the true Papuan race begins to
appear. The small islands of Savu and Rotti, however, to the west of Timor, are very remark-
able in possessing a different and, in some respects, peculiar race. These people are very
handsome, with good features, resembling in many characteristics the race produced by the
mixture of the Hindoo or Arab with the Malay. They are certainly distinct from the
Timorese or Papuan races, and must be classed in the western rather than the eastern ethno-
logical division of the Archipelago.
The whole of the great island of New Guinea, the Ké and Aru Islands, with Mysol, Sal-
watty, and Waigiou, are inhabited almost exclusively by the typical Papuans. I found no
