The islands are south of the Bird's Head Peninsula of Papua, west of the Aru Islands, and northeast of the Tanimbar Islands. The Kai islands are made up of numerous islands, including Kai Besar (Great Kai), Kai Kecil (Little Kai) and Kai Dulah, and the Kur, Tam and Tayandu island groups. The Kai Islands' total land area is 1438 km² (555 sq mi). Kai Besar is mountainous and densely forested.
The Kai islands are part of Wallacea, the group of Indonesian islands that are separated by deep water from both the Asian and Australiancontinental shelves, and were never linked to either continent. As a result, the Kai Islands have few native mammals.
History
Local history holds that ancestors of contemporary Kai islanders came from Bali, part of the expanding Majapahit kingdom from the western archipelago. The village of Letvuan on Kei Kecil was the first place that the royal family and the army arived, where they stayed with the local residents. As a result, Letvuan became a seat of government, where the local law (Lawur Ngabal) is developed. Evidence of these ties on Kei Kecil and especially in Letvuan include an inheritance and a harbour named Bal Surbay (Bali Surabaya) that is the place where the royals arrived.
Languages
Three Austronesian languages are spoken on the Kai Islands; Kei is the most widely spoken, in 207 villages on Kei Kecil, Kei Besar, and surrounding islands. Kur is spoken on Kur Island and nearby islands, where Kei is used as a lingua franca. Banda is spoken in the villages of Banda-Eli and Banda-Elat on the west and northeastern side of Kei Besar. Banda speakers originally came from the Banda Islands, but the language is no longer spoken there.
KEIISLANDS [Ke, Key, Kii, andc.; native, Ewab], 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.
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.
The Kei Islanders are skilful in carving and celebrated boat-builders.
The vegetation of the small and narrow islands, all encompassed by the sea, is very luxuriant, and the products, principally nutmegs, mace, and other spices, include also rice and sago.
Outside this hook lies a concentric arc of non-volcanic islands, including Tenimber, the Lesser KeiIslands, Ceram and Buru; and beyond is still a third concentric arc extending from Taliabu to the Greater KeiIslands.
The islands of these outer arcs consist chiefly of crystalline schists and limestones, overlaid by Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits.
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