360 



H. J. T. BIJLMER 



cassowary-feathers, used as ornaments, are quite New-Guinean fashion and the same may be 

 said of the holes in the ear-lobes and the nose-septum. Just like in the lower régions, an 

 ornament in thèse lobes is frequently missing; boars' tusks however are highly estimated as 

 finery. The wearing of bent feather-shafts as earrings and of glittering beetles in the hair of 



head or beard were seen hère like else- 

 where. The Jew's harp was quite common 

 as a musical instrument. 



As weapons the Timorini use bow 

 and arrow, but of a smaller size than 

 those, used by the Papuans in the plain. 

 The agricultural products are the same 

 ail over the island : several kinds of sweet 

 potatoes are the principal ones, bananas, 

 sugar-cane and'tobacco form most of the 

 rest. So ail the Papuans are cultivators of 

 the soil, though the tribes of the coast 

 may be chiefly fisher- or tradesmen, and 

 many plain-tribes sago-eating nomades 

 with degenerated agriculture. 



Among the Timorini we also found 

 the men-house, again a Papuan charac- 

 teristic, possibly even a Melanesian one. 

 And one of the members of the second 

 expédition in 1921 vvrote to me that traces 

 of totemism had been found, another 

 peculiarity, not nevv for this part of the 

 world. 



I am not an ethnologist. But having 



read what others saw in the différent 



parts of New-Guinea, I feel inclined to conclude that our newly discovered Timorini are of 



the Papuan stock, not only according to their outvvard appearance but also in regard ta 



their cultural property. 



In the first instance we hâve to consider the anthropological measurements of the 

 discovered tribe. I hâve been able to measure 64 men, 20 women and 24 children. Having; 

 made the acquaintance of the Mamberamo-Papuans and fortunately having met with a 

 hunting-party of seventeen North-coast Papuans, I profited by the opportunity to make com- 

 parisons. However, I thought it useful to implicate also a quite différent race in the comparison, as 

 only then can be ascertained, whether the stated particularities are spécifie for the Papuans. 

 At the same time it was a chance to compare one of the light-coloured tribes of the Asiatic 

 part of the Dutch-Indies with the dark ones of the Australian part. Therefore, before leaving 

 the expedition-field in March 192 1, I measured 40 of our Dyak rowers, true aboriginals of the 

 interior of North-East-Borneo and surely without any Papuan affinity. They belonged to the 



ris, Swart-valley. 



