lands of various sizes, such as Biak or Wiak, Jappen or Jobi, Run
or Ron, Noomfor, and many more. It is in regard to the natives who
inhabit the coasts or islands of Geelvink Bay that our information is
perhaps least imperfect, and it is accordingly with them that I shall
begin. In physical appearance, expression of the face, mode of wearing
the hair, and still more in manners and customs these natives of the
coast and islands differ from the natives of the mountains in the
interior. The name given to them by Dutch and German writers is Noofoor
or Noomfor. Their original home is believed to be the island of Biak or
Wiak, which lies at the northern entrance of the bay, and from which
they are supposed to have spread southwards and south-westwards to the
other islands and to the mainland of New Guinea.[482] They are a
handsomely built race. Their colour is usually dark brown, but in some
individuals it shades off to light-brown, while in others it deepens
into black-brown. The forehead is high and narrow; the eye is dark brown
or black with a lively expression; the nose broad and flat, the lips
thick and projecting. The cheekbones are not very high. The facial angle
agrees with that of Europeans. The hair is abundant and frizzly. The
people live in settled villages and subsist by agriculture, hunting, and
fishing. Their large communal houses are raised above the ground on
piles; on the coast they are built over the water. Each house has a long
gallery, one in front and one behind, and a long passage running down
the middle of the dwelling, with the rooms arranged on either side of
it. Each room has its own fireplace and is occupied by a single family.
One such communal house may contain from ten to twenty families with a
hundred or more men, women, and children, besides dogs, fowls, parrots,
and other creatures. When the house is built over the water, it is
commonly connected with the shore by a bridge; but in some places no
such bridge exists, and at high water the inmates can only communicate
with the shore by means of their canoes. The staple food of the people
is sago, which they extract from the sago-palm; but they also make use
of bread-fruit, together with millet, rice, and maize, whenever they can
obtain these cereals. Their flesh diet includes wild pigs, birds, fish,
and trepang. While some of them subsist mainly by fishing and commerce,
others devote themselves almost exclusively to the cultivation of their
garden