THE KI ISLANDS. 465 



Having completed our survey of the harbour and 

 obtained such supplies as we could, which, from the 

 traders only bringing with them enough for their 

 own consumption, did not amount to much, we 

 sailed for the Ki Islands ; a group sixty miles to 

 the eastward of Arru, consisting of two large islands 

 called the greater and lesser Ki, and a number of 

 small islands lying to the westward of the latter. 



The great Ki is about sixty miles long, high, and 

 mountainous ; the lesser Ki and the small islands 

 are low, few parts of the group attaining an 

 elevation of more than fifty feet. 



Owing to the light airs and unsettled weather 

 attendant on the change of the monsoon, it was not 

 till the 3rd that we arrived off the village of Ki lUi, 

 situated on the north-east end of the great Ki, and 

 finding no anchorage, the brig stood on and off, 

 while we landed in the boats at the village which 

 is built close down on the beach and surrounded by 

 a wall, but not so strongly protected by its position 

 as the villages in Timor Laut. The houses, like 

 those at Oliliet, were raised on piles above the 

 ground, but were not surmounted by the carved 

 gables which seem to be peculiar to the Tenimber 

 group. 



In the centre of the village we noticed a large 

 building, evidently a place of worship, surrounded 

 by a grass plot, on which a number of stones were 

 rang-ed in a circle with some taller ones in the 

 middle. Ki Illi is celebrated for its manufacture of 



VOL. I. 2 n 



