KEI ISLANDS [Ke, Key, Kii, &c.; native, Ewab]

This article appears in Volume V15, Page 715 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: JUN-KHA

KEI ISLANDS [Ke, Key, Kii, &c.; native, Ewab] , a group in the Dutch

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

Indies, in the residency of Amboyna, between 5 and 6 5' S. and 131 50' and 133 15' E., and consisting of four parts: Nuhu-Iut or

Great

GREAT

Kei, Roa or Little Kei, the Tayanda, and the Kur group.

Great

GREAT

Kei differs physically in every respect from the other groups. It is of Tertiary formation (Miocene), and has a chain of volcanic elevations along the

axis

AXIS (Lat. for " axle ")

, reaching a height of 2600 ft. Its area is 290 sq. m., the

total

TOTAL

land area of the group being 572 sq. m. All the other islands are of post-Tertiary formation and of level surface. The group has submarine connexion, under relatively shallow sea, with the Timorlaut group to the

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

-west and the chain of islands extending north-west towards Ceram; deep water separates it on the

east

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

from the Aru Islands and on the west from the inner islands of the Banda Sea. Among the products are coco-nuts, sago, fish, trepang, timber,

copra

COPRA (a Spanish and Portuguese adaptation of the Malay kopperah, and Hindustani khopra, the coco-nut)

, maize, yams
and tobacco. The population is about 23,000, of whom 14,900 are pagans, and 8300 Mahommedans.
The inhabitants are of three types. There is the true Kei Islander, a Polynesian by his height and black or brown wavy

hair

HAIR (a word common to Teutonic languages)

, with a complexion between the Papuan black and the Malay yellow. There is the pure Papuan, who has been largely merged in the Kei type. Thirdly, there are the immigrant Malays. These (distinguished by the use of a

special

SPECIAL

language and by the profession of Mohammedanism) are descendants of natives of the Banda islands who fled eastward before the encroachments of the Dutch. The pagans have rude statues of deities and places of sacrifice indicated by flat-topped

cairns

. The Kei Islanders are skilful in carving and celebrated boat-builders.
See C. M. Kan, " Onze geographische kennis der Keij-Eilanden," in Tijdschrift Aardrijkskundig Genootschap (1887); Martin, " Die Kei-inseln u. ihr Verhaltniss zur Australisch-Asiatischen Grenzlinie," ibid. part vii. (1890); W. R. van Hoevell, " De Kei-Eilanden," in Tijdschr.Batavzan. Gen. (1889) ; " Verslagenvan de wetenschappelijke opnemingen en onderzoekingen op de Keij-Eilanden " (18891890), by Planten and Wertheim (1893), with map and ethnographical atlas of the

south

SOUTH
SOUTH, ROBERT (1634–1716)

-western and south-eastern islands by Pleyte; Langen, Die Key- oder Kii-Inseln (Vienna, 1902).

End of Article: KEI ISLANDS [Ke, Key, Kii, &c.; native, Ewab]

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