Ewab] &c.; native Kii

Key KEI ISLANDS [Ke  , a group in the Dutch East 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 Kei, Roa or Little Kei, the Tayanda, and the Kur group . 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, reaching a height of 2600 ft . Its area is 290 sq. m., the 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-west and the chain of islands extending north-west towards Ceram; deep water separates it on the east 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, 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, 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 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 " (1889–1890), by Planten and Wertheim (1893), with map and ethnographical atlas of the south-western and south-eastern islands by Pleyte; Langen, Die Key- oder Kii-Inseln (Vienna, 1902) .