Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Timor Laut

TIMOR LAUT ("Seaward Timor"), called also Tenimber, an insular group in the East Indian Archipelago, forming the central and largest link in a double chain of islands which stretches from Timor through Kei and Aru to New Guinea. It lies nearly midway between Timor and Aru, and forms, not one continuous mass, as used to be supposed, but a group of three large islands, Yamdena in the centre, separated by Wallace Channel from Larat in the north and by Egeron Strait from Selaru in the south, besides a cluster or chain of islets on the west and north sides. From one of these the name Tenimber appears to have been extended to the whole group, which stretches for about 100 miles south-west and north-east, nearly parallel with Timor, from which, however, it differs altogether in its physical constitution. H. O. Forbes, who surveyed Wallace Channel and the northern districts in 1882, describes it as a low coralline group seldom rising above 100 feet, except at Egeron Strait, where the cliffs are 400 feet high, and at Laibobar, apparently a volcanic islet on the west side, which has an extinct crater 2000 feet high. There are no streams, and the poor soil, covered with a typically coral island flora, yields little beyond maize the staple food manioc, sweet potatoes, tobacco, some sugar-cane, cotton, and a little rice. The fauna includes buffaloes in a wild state, a marsupial cuscus, some bats, the beautiful scarlet lory, new or rare varieties of the ground-thrush, honey-eater, and oriole. The birds seem to have come mainly from New Guinea, the insects from Timor, and a few of both from Australia.

The aborigines are evidently Papuans, with a language like that of the Kei Islanders; but there is a large intermingling of Malayan and perhaps Indonesian elements. They are a fine race, often over 6 feet, and, like all Papuans, noted for their artistic sense, which is shown especially in their wood and ivory carvings. In other respects they are pagans in a low state of culture, mostly divided into hostile communities and addicted to piracy. The group belongs to the Dutch, who have a "post-holder" stationed at Ritabel on the west coast of Larat, a trading station of the Bughis from Celebes.