habitants are required to shave their heads, and the women their eyebrows as well. Mourning for a relative is indicated in like manner as well as by other observances. With infants the head is often shaved for a time, and for the next few years the hair is kept short, in which way it is also worn by all ages and sexes. Boys as a rule have their heads cropped. Fairly long hair is worn by many, but in no case is it ever permitted to grow below the shoulders; at that point it is cut across horizontally, and then, when bushy, the hair presents much the appearance represented in Assyrian and Egyptian records. The Nicobarese possess no musical instrument of their own invention, but very occasionally some individual attempts to produce, without much success, a copy of something he has seen in the hands of foreigners-a violin, guitar, etc. Two instruments are, however, in use among them: one, a seven-holed flageolet, which is Burmese, and the other, the danang, borrowed from the Indian "sitar," has three frets, a string of cane, and two sound-holes.† "It is a hollowed bamboo, about 2 feet long and 3 inches in diameter, along the outside of which there is stretched from end to end a single string, made of the threads of a split rattan, and the place under the string is hollowed, to prevent it from touching. This instrument is played upon in the same way as a guitar" while rested on the knee.‡ With the exception of dancing, singing, and feasting, there are hardly any organised amusements. The exact forms of the dances vary, but for special occasions new figures and songs are composed and assiduously practised. In the north-west, challenges for canoe races, or processions rather, circulate amongst the Kar Nicobar villages, and are taken part in by twenty or thirty men a-side. The large canoes are decorated, *The idea being that the demon who caused the death may fail to recognise the survivors. + M. V. Portman, Jour. Royal Asiatic Soc., 1888. G. Hamilton, Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. and the course is a long one several miles along the coast from village to village. As the men sing at the top of their voices throughout the race, they are generally exhausted at the finish. The pace is not remarkable, and the canoes keep abreast throughout, neither seeming to mind which comes in first. Wrestling is a favourite pursuit of the boys. There is no science or cunning displayed, and the rounds are very short, one or the other combatant going down at once. Pig processions are a pastime indulged in by young men. A pig is tied beneath a pole, and, with one of their number seated astride of it, is borne, with songs, about the village by a party of youths in the evening. In such villages as are situated near the calmer waters of harbours, little children amuse themselves by sailing models of canoes and junks. * The Nicobarese have no writing or pictography, and their attempts at ornamental work on articles of general utility are confined to the finials of the houses, the stem and stern posts of their canoes, and a little decorative carving on their wooden dishes. Nevertheless, in the charms and talismans connected with their superstitious cult they betray a certain artistic ability, and their pictures, screens, and figures of birds, men, and animals, show not only good powers of observation, but a capacity and skill of no mean order, in interpreting and reproducing whatever may present itself to them. As concerns metals, it appears that 200 years ago Jesuit missionaries discovered tin on Great Nicobar. Having regard to the proximity of the rich deposits of this metal in Sumatra and the Malayan Peninsula, it seems not improbable that the statement will some day be verified. At Kar Nicobar small quantities of iron pyrites are found. The art of working in iron is almost confined to Chaura, where the meráhtas and the best spear-heads are manufactured. The latter are, however, made at the other islands as well. Of weaving they have no knowledge, * Cf. "Dyak dishes," in Headhunters of Borneo, plate 19. and prior to the introduction of cotton and cloth garments they clothed themselves in tapa or cloth made of the beaten bark of a tree at present believed to be the Ficus brevicuspis, also with girdles of split coconut leaves. They are, however, expert basketmakers, and many-shaped baskets for various purposes are manufactured in different patterns of mesh, entirely out of the strips of rattan, or of the bark of the Maranta dichotoma. What the sago is to the Papuan, the pandanus is to the Nicobarese, and its luxuriant natural growth renders unnecessary any extensive agricultural labour on his part. The other great support of life-the coconut- once planted, thrives without further attention, and for the rest, his fruits, bananas, and yams, require but the slightest amount of cultivation. implement used in all cases seems to be the dáo only. The The islands produce no artificial material, and no raw merchandise is imported. Among themselves the natives trade in little more than pottery and canoes, and the only stores or bazaars are kept by foreigners who barter with the inhabitants. Coconuts, betel-nuts, rattan, mother-o'- pearl shells, trepang, and edible birds' nests, are the only trade commodities. The two latter are of minor importance, and are collected directly by the traders; the rattan comes from Great Nicobar only. Ambergris, for which the Nicobars were most noted in the Middle Ages, is still found, principally in the vicinity of Nankauri Harbour, and sold to traders. All traders visiting the Nicobars have to obtain, either from Port Blair or from one of the local Government Agents, a license, at a cost of I rupee per man of the crew, which grants them "permission to visit . . . for the purpose of trade during the present north-east monsoon season, on the condition that no person who may proceed thither by the vessel shall be permitted to remain behind . . . after her departure." Disagreements between the traders and natives are frequent, and, for the most part, seem due to the dishonesty and high-handed behaviour of the former. They get the natives into their debt |