TIMOE. 213 



vegetable zones of the Sundas and Moluccas. But Timor is on the whole com- 

 paratively poor in biological species, and in this respect forms part rather of the 

 Australian than of the Asiatic world. Here occurs the eucalyptus, a peculiarly 

 Australian plant, while the vegetation of the interior often recalls the African flora. 



The only feline animal is a long- eared wild cat, and the largest quadruped is a 

 species of deer resembling one found both in Java and the Moluccas. The only 

 member of the simian family is the Cercojyithecus cynomolgus, and two-thirds of 

 all the mammalian species belong to the widespread bat family. The most 

 dreaded animals are the green trigonocephalus and the crocodile, from whom the 

 rulers of Kupang claim descent. At the accession of a new rajah, his subjects 

 thronffed to the waterside to render homao-e to his saurian relatives : the first that 

 came to the surface was regarded as his Majesty's cousin ; a beautiful maiden, 

 gaily decked and perfumed, was presented to him as his consort and devoured 

 amidst the applause of the multitude. 



The natives of Timor are not classed with the Malays properly so-called, and 

 appear to be more akin to the Bornean Dayaks. Despite the statements of several 

 writers, there are no dark or Papuan tribes in the island, all the inhabitants of 

 which have the light, yellowish complexion of the Malay, and differ from each 

 other rather in their dress and arms than in stature or features. They are divided 

 into a large number of distinct clans or communities, speaking according to 

 Crawfurd as many as forty different idioms. The largest ethnical group is that of 

 the Ema- Velus (the Belunays of the Dutch), who occupy all the eastern section 

 and a great part of the centre. They claim to have come from the Moluccas and 

 attribute the same origin to their western neighbours, the Timorese properly 

 so-called ; whom, however, they also call Ema-Davan, or " Javanese." 



Some Bugis, Chinese and European traders are settled in all the seaports, and 

 a half-caste people, the so-called " Black Portuguese," have become established 

 especially in the northern principalities of Ambenu, Okussé and JN^oimuti, forming 

 a Portuguese enclave within the Dutch frontier. 



The natives who have not yet been brought under the influence of the 

 Protestant and Catholic missionaries have a somewhat developed animistic form of 

 religion. They worship Usi-Neno, " Lord of Light," who dwells in the Sun, and 

 whose wiie is the moon. The stars are the abode of an inferior order of deities; 

 but while paying reverence to these remote divinities, the Timorese address their 

 supplications chiefly to the natural objects round about them, the mountains and 

 rocks, trees, running waters, and the like ; they also make offerings to the souls of 

 the departed, who are regarded as the indispensable intermediate agents for all 

 communications between man and the higher divinities. 



The laws of pomali or taboo are as intricate and as carefully observed as 

 amongst the Polynesians and some Malagasy tribes. In fact the religious ideas 

 pervading the oceanic regions are so uniform that they can scarcely have been 

 independently evolved, and point rather at a common civilisation at one time 

 diffused throughout the whole area from Madagascar to the remote South-Sea 

 Islands. 



