THE TIMOR GROUP 
373 
introduced, the mutton is very good. In the Dutch part, 
coffee is not grown for export, and there is very little 
trade, ponies and sandalwood forming the only items of 
any importance. 
The inhabitants of Timor are regarded by almost all 
travellers in that country as a very mixed race, in which 
the Malay, Polynesian, and Papuan elements are blended. 
It is impossible to find a typical Timor native, so much 
does individual differ from individual. On the whole, 
they somewhat approach the Papuan type, but the hair 
is much less frizzled and the features less prominent. 
There is also a marked tendency to yellowness in the 
colour of the skin. The Timorese have never invented 
writing, as have the Sumatran tribes, and in point of 
civilisation they are not more advanced than the Dyaks. 
They weave cotton cloths of a peculiar pattern, make 
curious wallets of cloth, and form ingenious umbrellas 
from palm-leaves. They carry signal pipes by which 
they can communicate with each other at great distances 
across ravines. They do not live in villages, but in 
scattered huts, or family hamlets, thus differing from 
almost all the peoples we have hitherto considered. The 
practice of tabu is in full force, and almost every settle¬ 
ment has a Lull house or temple, the most important 
object in which is the Vatu-luli , or sacred stone, on which 
offerings are made to an indefinite deity or spirit. A 
species of nature-worship exists, and there are sacred 
groves wherein no branch may be broken or stone 
turned. The natives are still head-hunters in many parts, 
but the custom of sacrificing slaves at the interment of 
their chiefs and on other occasions has been checked to a 
certain extent by European rule. Some tribes have 
become Christian, or nominally so. Kice is grown to 
some extent, but the staple food of the natives is Indian 
