Lombok Island is about 53 miles long and 45 tulles broad, lying between lat. 8° 12' and 9° 1' S., and is intersected by the meridian of 116° 15' E. The Bugis call it Sassak, which is the name by which the inhabitants designate themselves, but its proper name is Selaparan. It is separated from Bali by the Straits of Lombok, and from Sumbawa by the Straits of Allass. It is mountainous, well covered with wood ; a vol canic peak in the N.E. corner of the island has an altitude of 11,134 feet. The island has been peopled from the neighbouring islands.
The Sassak are a Malay race, hardly differing from those of Malacca or Borneo. They had been converted to Muhammadanism, but the island was conquered by the Balinese, and the ruling race are Brahmanieal from Bali, and the raja of Lombok has the title of Anak Agong, which means son of heaven. A Sassak accepting llinduism enjoys the• privileges of the Balinese, and is exempt from taxation. An extensive commerce is carried on with all the Malay islands, particularly with Java and Borneo. The people frequently do amok, and it seems to be deliberately done. On one occasion, a person doing amok killed seventeen people before he could be killed. In war, a whole regiment will agree to amok, and• then run on with such desperate resolution as to be very formidable to men less excited than themselves.
The men are strict with their wives ; infidelity is punished by the couple being tied back to back and thrown into the sea, where crocodiles devour the bodies. Even a married woman accepting a flower or betel from a stranger has been punished by death with the kris ; and any one found without leave within the grounds of a house is krissed, and his body thrown out to the street. The people of Lombok believe that some men can turn themselves into crocodiles, which transformation they adopt in order to devour their enemies.
Sumbawa, a large mountainous island, 160 miles E. to W. and 20 miles broad, with an area of about 3200 square miles, separated on the W. from Lombok by the Strait of Allass, and by the Supia Strait on the east from Flores and Commode. It has six native states,—Sumbawa, Bhima, Dompo, Tomboro, Sangar, Pekat, under the supremacy of Netherlands India. It produces wax, birds' nests, sulphur, pearls, gold-dust, tobacco, horses, rice, timber, sandal-wood. The (fire mountain) Gun
ong Api is at the N.E. end of Bhima harbour. In Sumbawa, in 1815, 12,000 people were destroyed by the great eruption of Tomboro. Three lan guages are current in this island, one of them spoken by the people of Bhima. Their alphabet, once distinct, has been displaced by that of the Celebes.
Ceram Island, next to Celebes, is the largest island of the Moluccas. It is situated between lat. 3° and 4° S. on the meridian of 130° E., and is 180 miles long, but its greatest breadth is only 42 miles. The island is one long mountain chain that sets off transverse spurs, and some of the peaks are 5000 or 6000 feet in height, all of them sending down innumerable streams to the sea. The vegetation is everywhere luxuriant, and the trees gigantic. The northern peninsula of Gilolo, and the great island of Ceram, are inhabited by tall and well-made people, with Papuan features and curly hair. They are bearded and hairy limbed, but they are quite as light in colour as the Malays. They are an industrious and enter prising race. The people of Ceram approach nearer to the Papuan type than those of Gilolo. 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 man of 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 physiog nomy. Ceram has on its western side the three islands Bonoa, Kelang, and Manipa. The com mercial products from these islands consist of tortoise - shell, mother - of - pearl, beche - de - mer, wild cinnamon, wild nutmegs, and birds of para dise. Of 28 words of the language of Ceram, nine of the words are Malay, two Javanese, and 17 are common to these two languages.