192 THE KE ISLANDS. [chap, xxix; 



requires a sudden run and active fingers to secure a 

 specimen. Tliis species emits tlie usual fetid odour of the 

 ground beetles. My collections during our four days' stay 

 at Ke were as follow : — Birds, 13 species ; insects, 194 

 species ; and 3 kinds of land-shells. 



There are two kinds of people inhabiting these islands 

 — the indigenes, who. have the Papuan characters strongly 

 marked, and who are pagans ; and a mixed race, who are 

 nominally Mahometans, and wear cotton clothing, while 

 the former use only a waist cloth of cotton or bark. These 

 Mahometans are said to have been driven out of Banda by 

 the early European settlers. They were probably a brown 

 race, more allied to the Malays, and their mixed descend- 

 ants here exhibit great variations of colour, hair, and 

 features, graduating between the Malay and Papuan types. 

 It is interesting to observe the influence of the early 

 Portuguese trade with these countries in the words of 

 their language, which still remain in use even among these 

 remote and savage islanders. " Lengo " for handkerchief, 

 and " faca " for knife, are here used to the exclusion of the 

 proper Malay terms. The Portuguese and Spaniards were 

 truly wonderful conquerors and colonizers. They effected 

 more rapid changes in the countries they conquered than 

 any other nations of modern times, resembling the Eomans 

 in their power of impressing their own language, religion, 

 and manners on rude and barbarous tribes. 



