HUMAN SACRIFICE, 



117 



spots or freckles * and the hair is straight^ fine, and 

 of a reddish hue, or dark-auburn color. Every inter- 

 mediate vaiiety of hair and complexion between this 

 and the black, or deep-choc^)late color, and the short 

 tufted hair of the mountain Papuan, is found in 

 Timur." This statement would indicate that all the 

 intei-mediate shades of difference were the results of 

 a mixtuie of the Malayan and Papuan blood, and 

 this seems to be the probal)le origin of the whole 

 Negro-Malayan rac^. Its position in that part of the 

 archipelago nearest Papua is in entire accordance 

 with this hypothesis. 



Tradition says that the Kajah of Kupang for- 

 merly sacrificed a young virgin to the sharks and 

 crocodiles once every year, but this was generally 

 regarded as a fable, until a gentleman visited the 

 island of Semao, some twenty years ago, and asserted 

 that a rajah pointed out to him a place on the beach 

 of a bay neai* the southeast point of that island, 

 where "it was their custom after harvest to bring 

 sugar-cane, rice, fowls, eggs, pigs, dogs, and a little 

 cJdM, and offer them to the e\il spirits," and the 

 rajali further declared, that he had witnessed this 

 mm'derous rite himself. 



As we were to remain only one day, and I was 

 chiefly interested in collecting shells, I at once en- 



* Possibly the " spotSj" of ivhieli Mr. Earl Bpeaks, may have been 

 caused by some disease, for spots of a lighter hue than the general color 

 of the body are often seen among all Mtdays. Both the strfught-lmired 

 Malftysiana and the fmzled-h aired Melanesians have the odd castom of 

 rubbing line into their hair, which gives it a dall-vellowish or reddish 

 tinge. Mr. Earl, however, st^itcii that he has seen one nattTe whose 

 ]jair was naturally red, n kind of partial tdbinoiam. 



