CERAM ISLAND is the second in size of the Moluccas, having an estimated area of about 10,000 square miles. The mountains are from six to eight thousand feet in height, sending down innumerable streams to the sea. The sago palm is more abundant and productive than on any of the adjoining islands. Cloves and nutmegs grow wild. The people of Ceram approach nearer to the Papuan type than those of Gillolo. They are darker in colour, and a number of them have the frizzly Papuan hair ; their features are harsh and prominent, and the women are far less engaging than those of the Malay race. The Papua or Alfuro, the predominant type in Ceram, gathers his frizzly hair into a flat circular knot over the left temple, and places cylinders of wood, as thick as one's fingers and coloured red at the ends, in the lobes of the ears. They go almost naked ; but armlets and anklets of woven grass or of silver, with necklaces of beads or small fruits, complete their attire. The women have similar ornaments,
but wear their hair loose. All are tall, with a dark brown skin, and well marked Papuan phy siognomy (Wall. ii. 41). Of twenty-eight words of the language of Ceram, nine of the words are Malay, two Javanese, and seventeen are common to these two languages. Casuarius galcatus inhabits the island of Ceram only, It is a stout, strong bird, standing five or six feet high, and covered with long hair-like feathers. Its head has a large horny calque or helmet. The Ceram box manufacture has recently excited a degree of interest from the close resemblance it bears to the ornamental work of the North American Indians. A corresponding manufacture is met with in Borneo, with similar ornamental work of shells or wampum, but coarsen—Bib/lore, p. 210.